IMHO, what’s missing on the road to clarity, and why so many business owners struggle to have it, will surprise you.

You must lose your mind.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could put your mind aside from time to time and infuse yourself with the creativity that created the flowers, the sea, life? (Technically you can do it with psychedelics, but I try to be honest here at BMM.)

How else to lose or let go of our minds to get out of the same mindset, the rut that prevents us from coming up with those right words, that clear vision?

Start by taking off the responsibility of doing something right and letting all of your characters have a say. We are many versions of what we think like us, right?

Just the other day, a customer said, “If I didn’t care about staying true to my brand, I’d say it this way.” Two things are possible here; her brand isn’t really true to who she is in the business or that she hasn’t fully developed her brand to include a part of her that has some strong, and possibly important, ideas.

I say let them in.

Or in the case of reaching clarity, letting them out. Invite all off-brand thoughts, crazy ideas, radical rants, and passionate adult language into the conversation.

What will this get you and how on earth does it lead to clarity?

It offers you possibilities that you would not have thought of. while you try to clarify your message. It allows you to release your pent-up non-prime-time spiel in private. When she sees the thoughts she would rather not air in black and white, she may find a gem.

When we are in “seek clear message mode” we judge endlessly. Free to be you and me and say everything we feel, with the meter judge in the off position, empty the mind of the thoughts that demand our attention.

Oh space.

And a good laugh if you’ve done your best in this exercise.

This is where this is all going, or where it all started.

The manifesto.

A manifesto makes it clear who and what you stand for. Can’t not.

The very nature of the word, from the Latin manifestum, means clear or conspicuous. And the process of coming up with one of those cool infographic-type manifests you see online is a lot of fun.

Clarity through fun? Sign me up.

Let me take the ideas above and turn them into steps to get you started.

If you’re in a fight over who you serve or how you’re different, put that aside for now. You can’t bring any of those intents to this party no matter how well dressed they are.

Reserve at least 30 minutes for the first round. Yes, I get it, figuring out that 30 minutes will take some time, but if you watch TV, cat or dog videos, or really want to be successful in business, you have time.

Look, without a clear message and understanding of who you serve and how they want to be spoken to, you have gots, nothing, zip.

A manifesto doesn’t have to look a certain way, but to get to what you want you’ll have to start getting pissed off. What bothers you and who is the victim of it?

What makes you want to cry? What lights you up when you get to do it?

Who do you do it with or for whom?

What is the truth about you? The answer lies in the very things you most want to hide from the world.

What do you want the world to know? Write it ugly. Fuck grammar. Put it forward.

By now I bet you understand the process. Next week I’ll be back with what to do with all this gold. If you are the impatient type, you will not see gold, just garbage, chaos on a page.

For now, chaos is all we want. Let it rot, foster, ferment in what follows.

Of course, if you see a thread of something beautiful, take it, separate it from the dross. You will use it in the next step.

Relax your mind or lose it completely, but only for a moment.

Clarity is waiting.