In this episode Nir Zavaro argues that the single most important element for any business – whether a startup, agency, or established brand – is the ability to state clearly, in one sentence, what the company does. He explains that 99% of the businesses he works with cannot articulate a concise headline, leading to confused audiences and lost sales. The video critiques the common reliance on feature‑heavy messaging and buzzwords, showing how they clash with how people process information. Zavaro shares anecdotes from workshops where he quickly rewrote website headlines for founders, demonstrating his “super‑power” of distilling value propositions. He outlines a practical framework: a one‑sentence headline, three bullet‑point features (the “how”), and a 70‑word pitch that can be delivered in about 30 seconds. He ties this framework to storytelling, positioning himself as a teacher who helps brands scale by mastering narrative techniques. The episode ends with a homework assignment for viewers to rewrite their own website’s headline, three features, and 70‑word pitch, and invites them to comment, seek office hours, and share the video. Throughout, the tone is energetic, instructional, and slightly confrontational, emphasizing urgency and the tangible impact of clear messaging.
Chapters
In today's episode, I'm gonna teach you why this one word can change your whole business. And if you haven't done this, you have to change it now. Ready? Let's start. What is up, beautiful people? Welcome back to my channel. My name is Nir Zavaro, and I know this is supposed to be Building in Public Monday, but hear me out. I'm a bit pissed, and I think this is the one thing you need to remember if you're building a business, if you have a business, if you have a website, if you want to increase your sales. One word. Are you ready? What? I know. Last week I heard a great video by a good friend of mine on LinkedIn where he said, um, what is not the most important word when you do storytelling for your businesses?
It should be Why and so on.
I call BS on this, and I'll tell you why.
In my book, If the Slides I Talk About It, there's a whole thing, a chapter talking about what and how. Listen, if you can't articulate in one single sentence what you actually do, you will always have a problem. What we actually do needs to help you understand and structure who are the audiences you're not talking to, what is the service, why should they stay, why is this relevant to them? The problem is if you're looking to solve a problem, which is great, but people don't understand that's the problem you're solving, you're out. If people understand that you are building something and they're not the audience, guess what? You're out. What do you actually do?
Why am I so bullish on this thing, you might ask? My whole business is predicated on the fact that 99% of businesses I meet and work with have no clue how to explain in one sentence what they do, let alone in another paragraph how. Here's the problem. Most of us use features, the audience and stuff like that, to explain to people why we should buy their service, but that's not how we're wired. I want to see on the top of the website, hey, this is what I'm looking for. I need to keep scrolling. If you can't offer me that, please redo your website. Please redo your one-pager or any other material you have. When I started, the biggest problem I had was when startups that I went to accelerators, I meet startups, dozens a year. And I say, hey, how's it going? So can you explain what you guys do? And then go on a 20-minute rant explaining everything they can. And at the end I'd say, hey, that sounds great, but you see, I come from marketing, so I don't really understand. Can you explain it like I'm 6? Guess what? Most of them couldn't agree. The founders between them couldn't agree what they were actually doing. They use a lot of buzzwords, a lot of features. Of course today it's like AI. At the time it was a lot of Blockchain, it was a lot of other stuff. If you can't articulate, stop. Write, please.
Try and figure out if someone looks at your website, on the top of your website, and they say, hmm, I think this is what I'm looking for, or at least I need to scroll and figure it out and see if it's relevant to me. A couple of years ago when I started my workshops that incorporated sales, marketing, and branding, An interesting thing happened. I went to South Africa and I said, you know what, guys? There's 120 people in the room. All of you are big business owners. Come on, take out your phones, look at the top of your website, and I'll show you your website is shit. Now, I know it's a big thing to say. Trust me, I was sweating like a madman. The problem was that what if I make a mistake? What if I can't fix it? This is kind of my superpower. I can fix this very, very quickly. And the reason is because I can understand what's in it for me or for the audience. What are you actually doing? What I'm doing is simplifying the sentence. I'm taking out all the buzzwords and making sure that the right audience understand the right service that you can offer for the solution they're looking for. Do you understand? Simple. Guess what? Everybody raised their hand after the second and third company. Why? Because most people Throw something.
We're the best place to do the most amazing things. What are you? You could be anything. Try to be less of everything and more of a specific. I'll give you another example. Over the years, I've changed a lot of things on my website. I'm struggling with figuring it out. It's a thing. But you know what I love doing? I love teaching, and I use storytelling techniques, and I help brands. But over the years it went from helping to teaching. And today on my website is I teach brands how to scale using storytelling techniques. If you're a brand that wants to scale, guess what? And you understand that storytelling can help you, because most of the companies who reach out, even if they haven't seen my website, are saying we suck at our story, we don't know how to incorporate a better message. We don't know how to create a better customer journey. We suck at marketing. Could be a lot of things. A lot of the companies who come, I help them with a 500-word trailer pitch. If you don't know what it is, please read the book. So this is where my magic lies. This is what I can do. But more than that, it wasn't about just doing it for you. It was about teaching you how to do it. And the reason is because I want to teach. I want to talk to more people. I want to help more people. That means I need to show you how to do it. And next time, at least 80%, you can do by yourself.
And if we're talking about storytelling, a craft that we all do every single day, yet we don't practice enough, the thought was that if you understand the basics, you will then incorporate and do it more and more and more. This morning I had an amazing session with founders from Australia. Most of them are from Sydney, if I'm not mistaken. And the 9 companies that we went through, we fixed the top of the website, We fixed the one-liner. We fixed how they can achieve what they claim they can achieve. You know what? We even helped them craft the 30-second pitch about themselves.
So here's your homework. Look at your website and write in one sentence what you guys actually do. Then the next part, the next piece of your website will be 3 features, the how, in 3 features, not the million of how you can achieve what you claim at the top of your website. To make it easy for you guys, also create 70 words that explain all of these things. What happens now is in every setting, social, or when you need to send an email, right? When someone says, what do you guys do? What does a company do? You can say, hey, this is what we do. Hmm, it's an interesting claim. How do you do that? Here's the 70 words. 70 words is about 30 seconds, and I love that time frame. It's just enough to incorporate almost anything you need. My friends, this was a different type of Building in Public Monday. Quick update, I'm on my way to do 1,000 pieces of content. I will do a separate video about that because I owe you. Today I wanted to give value. I hope you enjoy it. DM me if you have any problems. Write in the comments what you do and what you're struggling with, and we might Do office hours together with you guys and help you live and show other people. Because at the end, I'm kind of sick of all these people who say, oh, all you need to do is this and that. No, let's experience share. Let me show you what I can do and let's see how you can get better. As always, do me the kind favor. You can subscribe, follow, do anything you want, but please share this with one friend who needs this the most. This was another episode. I'm Neil Zavaro and love you guys. Thank you. I appreciate the time, the effort, and all the subs. Talk soon.
