Attention is a scare resource, so when someone is willing to give you their attention it’s wise to make good use of it. The Founders podcast recently released a fantastic episode that dug into this, and I encourage you to check it out.
The main idea is that while it can be tempting to unload everything that you want to share, the more you share the less likely that the other person will remember any of it. If you share one thing, they’ll likely remember that one thing. If you share six things, they’ll likely remember none of them.
Steve Jobs was fanatical about simplicity, and always pushed to keep communication simple. This simple communication matters for your audience, but it also matters for your team.
If you’re running an ad or a marketing campaign, you need to tell people the one main thing that you want them to know.
If you’re talking to an internal team, the same thing applies.
In both cases you likely want to share a ton of thoughts and ideas; new products, new features, new problems to solve, and more. To the extent that you can boil it down to the main thing to focus on right now, the more successful you’ll be in both arenas.
