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So I have this plant in my living room. I can't tell if it's a tree or a shrub, I think tree?
I'm not a plant person. I mean, I like plants, but historically speaking, they usually die under my watch.
But this one was a gift from my bookkeeper a few years back, and I've somehow kept it alive, probably because it only needs to be watered like once a month and I can handle that level of commitment.
When I unboxed it, there was this little instruction card that said to replant it in a bigger pot in a few years so it could continue to grow.
Classic me: I filed that little piece of information into the later me problem category and promptly forgot about it.
Fast forward to last spring. I'm moving the plant to a new spot, and I think, "Oh! Perfect time to repot this thaaaang!"
I carefully shimmy the roots out of the pot, feeling very accomplished and adult-like, to immediately realize we don't have any potting soil at our new house yet.
So naturally, I shove it back in. Problem solved. 🙃
I've been walking past this plant for MONTHS now, and all I can think about is how symbolic this damn thing is.
You know the metaphor, right? A plant can only grow to the extent of its environment. The pot that used to keep you safe– the one where you thrived…
That same pot is now the thing holding you back from becoming who you want to be.
I've been simmering on this the last few weeks, thinking about the "pot" I'm in, the environment I've created, whether it still fits (while also doing absolutely nothing about the actual plant because apparently I love a good metaphor more than I love follow-through 😅).
But then last week, things got interesting.
My chill little tree started DYING.
Little brown leaf clusters falling off. Dry and dead.
Yesterday I'm on the floor cleaning them up, mentally adding "GO BUY POTTING SOIL" to my weekend to-do list in all caps, when a different lesson to the metaphor enters my brain:
Sidenote: I literally see metaphors EVERYWHERE, I can’t help it. It’s one of the things my clients love most about our work, I always have a metaphor to connect the dots on a lesson.
And here’s what new lesson surfaced:
What if staying in the same pot wasn't just limiting its growth, but was actually killing the plant?
Like... what if staying put doesn't mean you just stay cozy where you are… it eventually creates negative consequences for you?
My brain instantly went into a personal development lesson, but I immediately stopped myself and thought holy hell…
THIS IS WHAT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW IN ONLINE MARKETING.
This is why so many people are feeling that “things aren’t working the same way they used to”.
Your business messaging works the exact same way as this friggin tree.
That story you've been telling about yourself
The way you introduce what you do
How you talk about your offers
The language you've been using to describe your work for the last few years
It probably worked beautifully when you created it. It got you clients and resonated. It felt RIGHT.
But if you're feeling a little... off lately—
If your messaging feels like a sweater that's slightly too small but you keep wearing it because you spent good money on it...
If you're avoiding updating your website, dodging the "tell me what you do" question at networking events, or physically cringing when you read your own bio...
Maybe you've outgrown your pot.
You can keep shoving yourself back in. You can keep using that same language, that same positioning, that same story.
But eventually things start dying off (aka, inquiries die down, sales slow, you feel meeeeh about what you’re doing).
🫣I’m not in your inbox on a Friday to be a total downer, I’m here to tell you if you’re feeling this YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE, so…
Here's 3 ideas to help you revive your plant message:
1 - Notice what you're avoiding saying out loud.
The things you downplay / the parts you skip over when you're introducing yourself…. THAT’S usually where your NEW message lives. The bigger transformation you actually deliver now. The bolder claim you're finally ready to make. Pay attention to what feels too big to say out loud (that's probably exactly what people need to hear).
2 - Ask yourself: What was true then that isn't true now?
When you first created your messaging, you were solving for a specific version of yourself and your business. But what's different now? What do you KNOW that you didn't know back then? What do clients actually hire you for NOW versus what you thought they'd hire you for three years ago?
3 - Give yourself permission to evolve the damn story.
You don't have to burn it all down and start over. But you DO have to let your message grow WITH you. That means retiring the language that feels small, updating the examples that no longer represent your best work, and speaking as the person you are NOW— not who you were when you first started this thing.
Your message isn't supposed to stay the same forever.
So if it feels tight, cramped, like you're contorting yourself to fit into it:
Maybe this is a sign you're ready for more space.
Hope this landed in your inbox just when you needed it ❤️ because your message truly matters.
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Heather Sager
Speaking + Certified High Performance Coach helping you speak, teach, and lead—better.
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PS: I'm buying the potting soil this weekend. For real this time. Probably
PPS... you might be interested in this 👇
If you’re at a point where you want to figure this out. You've been doing this work long enough that you KNOW what you do is valuable. You have clients, you have results, but you're just too close to see what your people actually need to hear because you're buried in all the things you COULD say.
And you wished that you could just have someone who gets it to sit down with you and help you hammer this out so you can move forward, but you don't necessarily need (or want) a big coaching package to do it.
I do 90-minute Spotlight Sessions where we dig into where you are NOW, pull out what you've been sitting on, and reverse-engineer the language that matches the transformation you deliver. Think of it like a Magnetic Message Quickie. You walk away with clear talking points you can use immediately— for stages, podcasts, your website, or just finally being able to answer "what do you do?" in a way that feels right so you know your message is aligned with your ideal client.
In one of these sessions last year, Juliana discovered that she was talking to the wrong person in all her messaging. Brenna just booked another session to map out a refreshed talk for Social Media Marketing World (we did this last year too). Ellen used hers to map out her speaking topics for podcast interviews. Gloria used hers to have me audit (and refine) her webinar. Jen used hers to tweak her free talk into one should would be paid for.
These sessions take shape differently for each client, but the result it always the same:
“Holy cow Heather, this was the best freaking investment ever”.
After our 90 min sesh, you get me on Voxer for a week while you test drive it, because I know when you start using it in the real world, you'll have questions.
I only have 3 of these left in Q1. They're $2k. Click here to grab one, or just reply to this email if you want to talk through whether it makes sense for where you're at right now or if you want to confirm dates first or need to split into a payment plan.
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