Meeting Topic
How Your Audience Really Reads You – JO Morris
You’re in a café when three women at the next table catch your ear.
They’re staring at a phone — at your homepage, in fact.
“I love this,” the first one says. “‘Styled blooms for everyday’? Sounds great. And they do same-day delivery. I might use them for Mum’s birthday.”
You can’t help smiling. Yes!
But her friend tilts her head.
“Hmm… ‘Styled blooms’ sounds fancy, but then it says ‘everyday.’ Are they a premium place or more like a grab-and-go?”
Then the third woman joins in
“‘Styled blooms’ sounds like influencer nonsense to me,” she shrugs. “Probably charges $95 for three roses and a feather.”
Your stomach drops.
Three people.
One homepage.
Three wildly different interpretations.
Media theorists call these preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings — but in business terms, it simply means your audience can read your message three ways: exactly as you intended, mostly right but with their own spin, or completely differently. Think of marketing not as a megaphone, but a mirror: people don’t just hear your words; they see themselves in them.
Which means they’ll always read your message through their own:
- values and beliefs
- fears and frustrations
- needs and desires.
Misreadings happen when the audience interprets your message against your intention. For example, they might read a playful tone as unprofessional, or a minimalist website as unfinished. This often happens because we’re inclined to skim, rather than reading slowly, carefully and critically – especially online. Understanding this helps you tighten your messaging, so more people get what you mean.
When your message lands clearly, your audience interprets it the way you intended. You need:
-
- Clear home pages
- Strong value proposition
- Aligned visuals + voice
So, our florist’s home page might include:
✔ What they do
“Florist specialising in weddings, events, and everyday bouquets.”
✔ Who it’s for
Busy locals, romantic gift-givers, couples planning their wedding, corporate clients.
✔ What makes them different
Beautiful, modern arrangements crafted with style and care.
✔ The next step
Buttons like:
- Order for delivery
- Wedding enquiries
- Shop bouquets
The effect:
Customers immediately know:
- This is a florist
- They handle everything from everyday bouquets to weddings
- They’re easy to buy from
So – how can you tell if your own messaging is landing as you want it to? Here are some suggestions.
Practical Tools: How to Audit Your Website for Clarity
- Do the “Two-Minute Read” test: What message does someone get in 120 seconds?
- Ask a stranger: “What do you think this business does?”
- Strip back to headlines: Do the headings alone tell the story?
- Look for tone–audience mismatch: Warm vs corporate, soft vs bold, playful vs serious.
- Identify places where assumptions creep in: “Of course people understand X…” (They don’t.)
Misreadings are normal – common enough for media analysts to develop a theory! It can be a matter of small adjustments to get your words working with more clarity.
Your business already has a clear story – you just need to make sure your audience can actually read it.
Jo is The Write Coach
Next Meeting Topic
From Busy to Impactful: How to Simplify Our Leadership and Free Up Space to Grow – Josette Owen
As women leading a business in Aotearoa, we know our days are often full — client work, delivery, emails, admin, family, and everything in between. It’s no wonder many brilliant businesswomen feel stuck in “busy mode.”
The shift from busy to impactful isn’t about working harder. It’s about intentionally focusing our time and energy where it actually grows our business.
Global research reinforces this. McKinsey reports that leaders spend up to 60% of their week on low-value tasks, while HBR shows context-switching alone can cost 2–3 hours a day. For solopreneurs and small businesswomen (like us), that’s a huge drain on headspace — and a major blocker to growth.
A trusted model, adapted for solopreneurs
Before diving in, credit where it’s due. The thinking behind this approach comes from the classic Eisenhower Matrix, later popularised by Stephen Covey. I’ve adapted the intent for NZ BW as I believe a number of us are often teams of one (or very small) — where delegation looks very different.
The Simplification Lens (A Solopreneur-Friendly Version)
Instead of four quadrants, think of a single guiding question:
“Does this grow my business, grow my clients, or grow me?”
Then sort our tasks into four simple buckets:
- Do Less (Reduce or Delete)
Ask: If I stopped doing this, would anything break?
Often the answer is no.
Examples: over-polishing proposals, tweaking social posts for hours, maintaining systems we might not need.
- Do Later (Schedule with Intention)
Some tasks matter — but not today.
Protect a weekly “CEO Time” slot to park anything important but not urgent. Even one hour a week creates strategic breathing room.
- Do Differently (Solopreneur Delegation)
Delegation isn’t just hiring. It can look like:
- Automation (booking systems, templates, invoicing tools)
- Tiny outsourcing (a VA for 2 hours a week, AI, bookkeeping)
- Skill swaps with another businesswoman (genius move in this community)
- Batching instead of multitasking
The goal is to free our brain, not our entire task list.
- Do What Matters (Our Impact Zone)
Covey’s “important but not urgent” zone — the real engine of growth.
For most businesswomen, this includes:
- Strengthening client relationships
- Building our network
- Creating content that brings opportunities
- Thinking and planning ahead
- Looking after our wellbeing so we can perform at our best
A small, powerful experiment
Open your diary. Claim one hour this week as CEO Time.
Use it to scan your tasks using the four buckets.
Then choose:
- One thing to stop,
- One thing to outsource or automate,
- One thing that truly grows your business, and prioritise this.
Busy is familiar. Impactful is where our business moves, grows and becomes easier to run.
And when we lead with clarity, focus and confidence — the ripple effect is extraordinary.
I’m Josette Owen Executive & Organisational Coach, founder of Elevate Leadership. I partner with senior leaders to create clarity, unlock potential and build healthy, high-performing teams.
I’d love to connect — reach out anytime josette@elevateleadership.co.nz
