"If people can only explain what they do in a lengthy and unorganized way, it is confusing and takes away from my ability to connect with the idea, no matter how good it may be." Ryan Foland
When business planning, we can get so wrapped up in the details of what we're working on that we can forget to step back and simplify what we do into a simple statement. The 3-1-3 process is a great tool to help tell a clear story when defining a brand for a business or vision for a product.
Here's how to tell your story in 3 words:
1) Tell your story in 3 sentences.
The 3 most important elements of a pitch:
Problem
Solution
Market
2) Refine your pitch to 1 sentence.
Shrink your pitch from 3 sentences to 1 sentence, take the problem (P), solution (S) and market (M) and combine them into one sentence.
Example:
I help career driven people (M) build their personal brand through teaching them how to gain more social proof (S), so they stop getting overlooked for jobs (P).
3) Refine your pitch to 3 words.
The trick to refining your pitch to 3 words is through the use of relational connectors, such as 'of', 'meets', etc., to associate with other words and ideas that people already know.
Here's some examples of a 3 word pitch:
Blacksmith of Branding
Carpenter of Surfboards
Uber of Massages
Oprah of Blogs
Read the full Inc. article here