One of the biggest lessons I'm relearning in my business right now is this: when you speak to everyone, you speak to no one.

As someone who’s spent over two decades in marketing, that’s nothing new. Yet, I came to the realisation recently that I’d fallen into this exact trap myself.

If someone had asked me who I worked with two months ago, I would have said Founders, CEOs, leaders, entrepreneurs and business owners. And while that's true, it's also incredibly broad.

Recently, I've been reflecting on where I create the deepest impact. Not just where I can help people, but where I understand them at a level that goes beyond strategy.

Who are the people whose stories I know because I've lived parts of them myself?

The answer kept coming back to the same group: women in their 30s, 40s and 50s navigating change.

Women carrying the competing demands of leadership, ambition, relationships, family, motherhood and identity.

Women navigating burnout, fertility challenges, perimenopause, career transitions or simply asking themselves a question they can no longer ignore:

Is there more for me than this?

The interesting thing is that getting more specific hasn't made my audience smaller. It's made my audience clearer. And that's where I think many leaders, founders and professionals get stuck.

We assume broad messaging creates more opportunity. In reality, broad messaging often creates distance. Or lacks connection.

Why leaders dilute their message

Most people dilute their message for understandable reasons.

They're worried about excluding people. They're worried about being boxed in. They're worried that choosing a clear point of view means closing doors.

I understand that.

I've spent more than two decades working in marketing, communications and leadership roles where perception matters, where stakeholder management matters and where saying the wrong thing can feel risky.

Many leaders have spent years being rewarded for adaptability. They know how to read a room, navigate competing interests and communicate diplomatically. These are valuable skills.

But they can also create a habit of filtering ourselves.

We become so focused on being relatable to everyone that we stop communicating what we actually believe.The message becomes broader. Safer. More generic. Not because we don't have something meaningful to say. Because we're trying to make sure nobody feels excluded from hearing it.

The irony is that this often has the opposite effect.

Why broad messaging doesn't work

People don't connect with broad categories. They connect with lived experience. They connect with feeling understood. They connect with hearing someone articulate a challenge they've been carrying but haven't quite found the words for.

That's why broad messaging rarely works. When you try to talk to everyone, nobody feels like you're talking directly to them. Because you aren’t.

Your audience might admire your credentials. They might acknowledge your experience. But they don't see themselves in the message. And without recognition, it's difficult to create trust.

Professionally, this shows up in ways many people don't immediately recognise. People understand what you've done, but not necessarily what you stand for.

They know you're capable, but they struggle to describe what makes you different. Your reputation becomes built on competence rather than perspective and lived experience. And while competence earns respect, perspective is often what creates influence.

Understanding your personal narrative

The shift happens when you stop asking, "How can I appeal to more people?" and start asking, "Who do I understand deeply and why?"

That's where your personal narrative becomes important. Not as a branding exercise. As a source of insight. Your lived experience shapes what you notice. It shapes what you care about. It shapes the patterns you can see in other people.

For me, that's the experience of being a high-achieving woman who spent years tying my worth to performance. It's understanding the pressure to hold everything together. The expectation to keep going. The challenge of navigating success while quietly wondering whether the life you've built still fits who you've become.

That's not everybody's story. But it is somebody's story. And when those women hear it, they recognise themselves. It’s in that recognition that connection and trust begin to grow.

When we understand our own narrative, we stop trying to communicate everything. We become clearer about our values, our perspective and the unique contribution we're here to make.

The message stops sounding manufactured and it starts sounding like us.

When your personal brand catches up with who you are

That's why I think this conversation is bigger than marketing.

Whether you're building a business, leading a team, growing your profile or stepping into a new chapter of your career, people are constantly forming an impression of who you are.

The question is whether your personal brand reflects who you are today, or who you used to be. Or perhaps it’s even a reflection of a version of you that never really existed.

Many of the leaders I work with aren't struggling because they lack experience or expertise. They're struggling because their personal brand hasn't caught up with who they are becoming.

Their career has evolved. Their priorities have evolved. Their values have evolved. But the way they talk about themselves is still rooted in an older version of their identity.

They know they have more to offer, but they find it difficult to articulate exactly what they stand for, what makes them different or what they want to be known for.

As a result, their message becomes broader. Safer. More generic.

When you commit to the work of relearning your own story, everything changes:

• Your message becomes clearer

• Your audience becomes more connected

• The opportunities that come your way become more aligned

• Your content becomes easy to create

• You stop trying to be everything to everyone and start becoming known for something meaningful.

Most importantly, you stop building a reputation based on who you think people expect you to be. You build one based on who you actually are.

That's the work I do through PR By Design.

Not traditional public relations.

Not simply helping people become more visible.

Helping my clients to understand their story, clarify their narrative and build a professional and personal life that feels aligned.

Sound like something you might be interested in? Get in touch for a chat about my 1:1 coaching programs to get you there.