Why positioning fails

We ran a diagnostic assessment after our recent Power Positioning workshop and one phrase kept appearing: "I've tried positioning before. It didn't work." These weren't beginners. These were consultants who understood the theory, agreed with the framework, and still couldn't make it land. Their conclusion was that positioning doesn't work for them. But that's like saying you tried riding a bike and it didn't work. In this episode, we break down the three cognitive biases that prevent you from ever getting positioning right on your own, why sitting in a room brainstorming the perfect tagline guarantees failure, and what actually has to change before your messaging will resonate.

Show Notes:

• The phrase we kept hearing: Why "I've tried positioning before" reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of what positioning actually is
• The whiteboard delusion: What my old corporate marketing meetings taught me about how most consultants approach messaging, and why ChatGPT made the problem worse, not better
• The curse of knowledge: You can't unknow what you know. That's not a motivational quote. It's the reason you keep talking past your prospects
• Why your peers love your content but your prospects don't: The uncomfortable reason you're getting engagement from the wrong audience
• The language mismatch: What editing my father's academic journal on aquatic ecosystems taught me about why consultants and their prospects literally can't communicate
• The synthesis trap: Our research coach Anna's observation about why consultants are too good at something that's actively hurting them
• Confirmation bias in action: The client whose messaging looked perfect until I asked one question. Why having a preference for what you want to sell corrupts everything downstream
• Why you can't solve this alone: Even if you do customer research, there's one bias you'll never overcome without outside perspective