In the marketing that we do, our delivery, our programs and everything where we provide information and services to others, do we go too deep too soon?

For Example:

Provided by Mitch Tublin: Tips for Dealing with severe cold weather      

• Dress in layers. If you start to get too warm, you can remove one layer. Don’t wear cotton next to your skin; it can hold moisture and chill you.
• Protect your head, hands and feet. In very cold weather, your extremities are more at risk for frostbite.
• Drink plenty of fluids. You can get dehydrated in the cold as well as the heat. Don’t drink alcohol.
• If it’s a bright, sunny, snow covered day wear sunscreen.
• If any area of your body becomes numb or stings, get out of the cold. Don’t rub it. Let it warm on it’s own. If it stays numb, seek medical help.
• Signs of hypothermia include: intense shivering, slurred speech, loss of coordination and fatigue. Seek emergency help right away if these symptoms occur.
  – Source: The Mayo Clinic

How do you feel about this information? Many of the tips are about as basic as it gets. Meanwhile there are one or two items of deeper information provided later on in the Tips. Do you agree? Is this how you read these Tips?

This is an excellent example of how to organize and construct tips or advice. Provide the most basic information you are able to think of and place these early in the delivery. This will connect you with your reader, client or audience. Now as you have brought them  along the path with a few more items of basic information, and essentially have warmed them up you might offer some deeper more thoughtful content. If you do intend to provide deeper and more thoughtful information move these toward the end.

Here is a brief word of caution from me to you. Please do not take this article to mean ‘dumb down my work.’ No it is not my intent to ask you to ‘dumb down your work.’ The point is to offer, to in fact reinforce, the most basic information. At the very least you are building confidence in you since you are showing – “why yes, I know this and this” – and this makes you a trusted resource now in their eyes. They are now prepared to read or hear the more detailed information you may wish to provide.

Mitch Tublin is an advanced certified executive and personal coach who resides in Stamford, CT.