In this concise, under‑10‑minute monologue, Steve Lichtman argues that most business owners communicate with a "resume" style that showcases their credentials rather than speaking to the human needs of their audience. He explains that busy, emotion‑driven prospects make decisions first with feelings and then with logic, so messaging must be conversational, clear, and centered on the customer’s desired outcome. Lichtman introduces the RISE framework—Reset (gain distance to rethink), Identify (clarify the audience’s desired feeling), Simplify (make the message digestible), Execute (deliver cleanly)—as a step‑by‑step method to rewrite LinkedIn and marketing copy. He illustrates the approach with an accountant example, showing how to shift from “I am an accountant” to “I handle the tax paperwork you hate, saving you time and stress.” Throughout, he stresses pausing, speaking naturally, and focusing on how the prospect’s life changes when they work with you, rather than reciting past titles or achievements. The episode ends with a reminder to keep messages short, human, and customer‑focused.
Chapters
Most business owners talk in resumes. Think about it. Oh, I help businesses grow through international strategy development and customized solutions. All right, then, cool. But what does that mean to the real human on the other side of the screen? Messaging isn't about sounding smart. It's about being understood. You can be the smartest person in the room, but if I don't understand what the hell you're saying, I'm certainly not going to hire you just because, oh, he sounds smart. You have to be able to convey that message in a way that I can understand it. So not only do I think you sound smart, but I know damn well you are. And then I know that you're the right person for the job. You're the right person to connect with, you're the right person to network with, you're the right person to buy from, you're the right person to join up with whatever that goal goal may be. If you're the smartest person in the room, well, freaking great. There's probably somebody smarter anyway, because that's how life goes. But they're just not standing there shouting about how smart they are. Instead, they're finding a way to use their messaging to be understood. Remember, your audience is busy. We're all busy, right? We're all distracted, scrolling, we're all emotion driven. We're human beings and we make decisions with our feelings first most of the time, and logic second. And most business messaging doesn't reflect that at all. It's written like a presentation instead of a conversation, right? You, you think about, go look on your LinkedIn right now. Like, everybody pause. And right before you pause, do this. Go scroll onto your LinkedIn, scroll your feed, and tell me how many people are actually speaking to you and how many people are speaking at you or just telling you like it is, or telling you a story that's probably some BSAI story like all the ones getting generated these days. How many people are actually having a conversation with you? I can think of a few on my timeline that are fantastic. I don't name names, we'll leave it be. But I know a couple real killers in that market where they are all about the conversation. And then I know a bunch that all treat LinkedIn like one gigantic hellhole of a PowerPoint. And that is sad, sad, sad. So look, the Rise framework is going to help you rewrite your message with clarity. We'll go back to clarity every episode. We're going to talk about clarity. Because you get out of your head long enough this way to see what your audience actually needs to hear. The reset gives you distance, right? The reset, that's the distance you need to rethink everything, identify, clarifies the outcome you want people to feel. And then the simplification, to simplify it, makes the message digestible, execute. You're just simply delivering it in a clean and simple to understand way. People don't want you to talk about what you do. Nobody cares. Like, let's be honest, how many people really want to hear you recite your LinkedIn resume that you've written and rewritten a hundred times, then threw it through ChatGPT or Claude or Grok or Gemini or whatever the hell you might have used? Like nobody wants to hear that. Nobody wants to meet you and then hear you talk about. In 1992, I was the director and leader of the Blah blah blah. No, no, please God, no. Especially the older we get, right? So for the younger audience, you don't have that body of work necessarily to lean on, right? You don't have the. Well, in 1996 I was the top salesman of yada yada yada. And then for the older folk, when you say that, do you not realize how dated that makes you sound? Like, look, I'm old as dirt, but I'm not gonna tell you anything about the 90s except for maybe some kickass rock concerts I went to. I mean that's, you know, it's the only thing anybody's gonna care about. Nobody cares about what I did for a living in 1995. Hell, I don't even remember. I would have to go look at my old resumes to find them and then dig through them to see, well, what the hell did Steve even do in 95? Cuz I sure don't. Anyways, use this rise framework, help yourself, rewrite your message, get the clarity you need, right? It all comes down to that. Nobody wants to hear you talk about that whole what do you do thing and we're coming right back to it. They want to hear how life changes when they work with you. That's what matters, how life changes when they work with you. Think about that for a minute. Let it absorb, soak it in. Hit pause. You know, I'm a big believer of pausing podcasts and just thinking for a minute, then letting it continue. Because we all talk too fast, right? We all. Anybody who's recording themselves in any capacity probably talks too fast. And that's why they do a podcast or a video cast or whatever you want to call any of these types of mediums these days. So let's get to the riff, the episodic riff, right from last episode. We're going to rename the marketing or the riff of the week or whatever we were calling it. We're going to rename it, but for now, it's just the riff of the episode. People don't buy what you do. They buy what it does for them. Think. It's always about taking a step back and think about what that really means. People don't buy what you do. Hi, I'm an accountant. Okay, great. I don't need an accountant. I need my taxes done right. An accountant is part of the product of that. I want a great accountant. But at the end of the day, like, okay, then you go to the other half of it. They buy what it does for them. I'm an accountant that specializes in corporate tax filings in the state of Delaware. Well, now you got something that might be a little bit more interesting for people. And even so, it's still pretty rough, but you talk about something instead. So if you talked about tax savings as that accountant, as opposed to just, I could file your paperwork for you. That sucks to do and nobody wants to do and people hate QuickBooks or whatever and don't want to dick around with all that. So I handle all the crap paperwork that you don't like to do that doesn't. Nobody cares. Like, yeah, no kidding. That's the job title. That's just part of it. So think about your messaging right now. Rewrite your message with the customer at the center and not yourself. Stop saying I sell Widget X. I can do this for you. I can do that for you. Start thinking about what your customer, who literally is the centerpiece of your audience, right? Like, that's the hero of the story. What do they need? What do they want? Then that's when everything's going to start connecting for you. When you start putting those dots together. Start thinking about your customer first. All right, so listen, I'm Steve Lichtman. This was unfiltered and unshakable. Thank you once again for being here and listening. I try to keep these short and sweet. The goal is always under 10 minutes. I might drag over at times, but the goal is always going to be less. So thank you. Have a wonderful day and a wonderful tomorrow.
