This is why my girlfriend wanted to kill me

It’s the summer holidays. 

I’m 17, and I’m really excited because after two weeks apart, I’m about to see my girlfriend (my first ever girlfriend)– and I have a surprise for her. 

So as I walk up to her house, I can see that she's sitting on the porch with a couple of girlfriends. She sees me, smiles and starts trying to figure out what I’m wearing. 

That’s because what I got on is this T-shirt that I had custom-made: it's black, it has a beautiful picture of her in the front and just below her picture there’s a poem that reads: 

As she takes in the picture and reads through the poem, her face changes. She looks at me in an intense way and says, 

“Take off your shirt right now", so I think, 

“Wow, that's a much better reaction than I was expecting, particularly in front of her friends!”

But then she looks at me again and says, 

“Take off that ridiculous shirt right now”– she sounds really upset, so I do. I never wear that shirt again.

And, for a while there, it was touch and go if I was ever going to see my girlfriend again.

That’s when I learned that it doesn't matter how much you care about what you're trying to say; if you don't find the right way of saying it, then the people you're trying to win over might end up… 

…wanting to kill you 😅

There is no perfect story…

I wish I could tell you that I’ve gotten much better at it and all my romantic gestures land perfectly now– but they don’t. It’s still a little bit hit and miss (even if the misses are a lot less embarrassing than this one was!) 

I also wish I could tell you there is a perfect story: that if you craft it the right way, and tell it the right way, it will always land with any audience. 

Although that is often true, you can still get yourself in trouble. There is no perfect story that suits every audience. 

… But there is a perfect message 

The difference is that your message is not just your story (or however else you’re delivering it): it’s also how it fits a particular audience.

How relevant it is to them. How much it’s about a problem they know they have– not something you think is a problem. How it's going to make their life better. And, of course, how it’s shared.

Some audiences just want humour and stories. Some want to see a lot of data. With some you can get very personal, and with some you have to tone that down. There is no perfect formula. You need to figure it out. And remember: 

No one cares how much your message means to you. No one cares how good your intentions are. No one cares, really– until you find the right way to share it and make it about them.

Then they do 🤘

-Francisco 

PS. Do YOU have a message that you want to spread throughout the world? Then come join us at the Road to the Red Dot™ Summer Bootcamp! We start Friday July 5 and seats are filling. Explore the Bootcamp.

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