Write An "I Help" Statement That Sticks With People (How to Explain What You Do)

You've heard it a thousand times: write your "I help" statement. I help [target audience] achieve [result]. Simple, right?

So why does it still feel like nobody really gets what you do?

In this episode, Jenna gets real about why even the people who LOVE you and want to support your business can't explain what you do — and why that's actually *your* problem to solve, not theirs. 

Strong messaging and a clear positioning statement isn't just an online marketing checkbox. It's the foundation of your marketing — the thing that makes your ideal clients self-select before you even say a word. 

In this episode, you'll hear:

• The story of Jenna's aunt — and the moment she realized her messaging wasn't as clear as she thought
• Why the classic "I help statement" still works to explain what you do 
• The #1 mistake business owners make when writing their marketing statement: using their expert language instead of their client's language
• Why cramming everything you do into one sentence actually makes you less clear, not more
• What an old-school PR pro taught Jenna about messaging 
• How a clear positioning statement makes your social media marketing work harder — and gets your content in front of the right people faster

The big takeaway:

More information does not equal clarity. Whether you're brand new to entrepreneurship or years into running your business and marketing your service online, your job is to find the one key result your clients actually want — and lead with that. Everything else follows.

If people in your life keep asking you to explain what you do, that's a messaging problem. And it's fixable.

🎓 Ready to get clear on your messaging and start attracting clients from Instagram? Join Magic Marketing Machine!

www.magicmarketingmachine.com

New to the show? Shiny New Clients is the podcast for women who own service-based businesses and want to get clients from Instagram — without burning out or dancing on camera. So glad you're here!

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Music by Jordan Wood

Hosted by Jenna Harding (Warriner), Creator of Magic Marketing Machine

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✨Tap here to watch a FREE masterclass on “How To Get Clients From Instagram (without wasting hours glued to your phone)"

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Music by Jordan Wood

Hosted by Jenna Harding (Warriner), Creator of Magic Marketing Machine

Transcript

Jenna Harding How To Write An I Help Statement to explain what you do.

There was an era in my life and in my business when I lived in an apartment in my aunt's house. Me and my then fiance, maybe even boyfriend, lived in my aunt's house. And so I hung out with her every night. We drank wine. We played Euchre, which is a card game. I hear it's a very Ontario card game. Like people play it all over the place. But in Ontario, everybody knows Euchre.

Anyway, she knew the ins and outs of my business.

She knew the struggles I was having with clients. She knew about deliverables that I was staying up until two AM making. She knew I worked in social media and I thought that it was very clear what I did. But one day we were out at a gathering and she met somebody who had a business and she said

Jenna can help you. She ⁓ does the, you know, the Instagram, the social media. Jenna, tell them what you do. And I thought that was wild. I thought it was wild that someone who knew me so well and cared so much about my business couldn't put into words what I did. And you know why she couldn't? because it was my responsibility as the business owner to give her the words to say

That describe me, just like it is your responsibility to create crystal clear messaging, not just because it is a key ingredient in marketing and the marketers of the world tell you that you need clear messaging, but because the people around you who want to support you.

need to be able to quickly succinctly say what it is that you do. Messaging is in part to communicate to the masses, but also to put that proper language into other people's face holes, their mouth.

That was weird. I don't I don't like how that sounded. But I'm gonna roll with it.

the most ancient messaging exercise of all time since the internet is the I help statement. I help target audience achieve goal result. And that classic I help statement honestly gets so much flack, and I have a theory, I have a theory that most of the things that you fear in your business are a bug of.

Put in your ear by someone trying to sell you an alternative. No, there is nothing wrong with the classic I help statement. I help target audience achieve result without thing they don't want to do to get it. Like that's another extended version. I mean, in terms of copywriting, starting with I isn't necessarily the strongest move, but the I help statement, I still teach it, I still love it. Sometimes we need that.

clear formulaic sentence just to get the ball rolling and then we can get it to be more creative from there.

My I help statement is usually I help service-based business owners get clients from Instagram. And one time I was teaching, and I'm teaching messaging to my students in Magic Marketing Machine, and I'm teaching, putting together your one-liner sentence and putting it in your Instagram bio and using it everywhere and all that. And someone was feeling really frustrated in that moment because it can be a frustrating process to uncover for sure. And they said, Jenna, but it's just you're so lucky, like you have such a

Clear I help statement. Like it's so it was so easy for you. ⁓ Excuse ⁓ Do not act. Like I didn't toil over that I help statement. Yeah, it sounds simple now. I help service-based business owners get clients from Instagram, sure. But it wasn't simple when I was creating it. I was like, I do so much more than that. I am so much more than that. You're also gonna get views, you're also gonna get followers, you're also gonna spend less time on your phone.

You're gonna build your public image. Like there were all these things that I was so excited about that I could do for entrepreneurs and business owners. And like deducing it to getting clients instead of followers and views and all these other things, I felt like that was limiting myself. I hear this a lot in the wellness space too, right? If you have all these skills and people gain so much in different directions from working with you, we try and cram it all in.

But by cramming it all in, you muddy the entire experience and you're left with people not understanding what you do. I'm gonna say that again. If you try and put everything you do into one giant run-on I help statement, or ram it all into your Instagram bio, or load your website with all of the different things that you can do, more information does not equal clarity, right? Less succinct information.

Information equals clarity.

we work with our clients on this so much in Magic Marketing Machine. we have videos on it. Our clients come to us in our Facebook group and ask us questions about theirs all the time. And we work it out with you. And I remember when I was working it out with my coach so many years ago, and I was pulling my hair out. It was so frustrating. But then I realized, okay.

Social media is a means to getting clients. So at the end of the day, my clients want clients. You want to grow your business, you wanna make money, you wanna help more people. So I will help you do that. Like of course you're gonna get all those other things, just like your clients are gonna get lots of benefits from working with you. But we wanna figure out what that one key result is, and then that becomes the north star of your marketing.

You might even feel mental pushback right now. That's fine. That's allowed. I think that's part of the process. And it's also why having an outside eye is so important. Like I didn't do this on my own. I had an outside eye. And now I am the outside eye for over a thousand business owners.

mistake that a lot of people are making is you write your "I HELP statement" with your own language from your own expertise, not

the thoughts and feelings of your client's language, which is what it needs to be. And so when I'm talking about messaging, I do mean that "I help statement", but I also mean like anytime you go to sell your offer and tell people how they can work with you, what they get out of working with you anywhere. So that's your website, that's your emails, that's when you're networking with people, that's even when you're talking to folks who can potentially be sending you referrals. If you want someone to send you referrals, you need to be clear with them

who you help, how you help them, and what they get out of it.

When your messaging is clearer, you will likely get more referrals from people you don't even expect because it's just so clear and understandable what you do.

Let me tell you another story. I'm sorry if I've told you this one before. We're getting into that zone where I have so many episodes that I'm like, ⁓ did I say that already? But it's quick. So I was working for these really old school PR professionals as the social media person on a very enormous Toronto wide PR project that will remain nameless.

But if you have even stepped foot in Toronto, you have interacted with the company that I was working for, I can guarantee it. Anyway.

I learned so much from these old PR dudes, ⁓ like their traditional PR, and I was the person that came in to like bring in the new media and the social media world.

one of the biggest takeaways I had from him was when he told me our job isn't to change the minds of the people who don't agree with us. It's to give the people who do agree with us the language to say at the dining room table. Mic drop.

Our ad campaign wasn't gonna change people's minds. And he's telling me that's not our job. But there are people out there who are gonna advocate for us. So let's tell them what to say. Let's give them the talking points. Let's make sure they really clearly understand our stance and why it's important and why valuable.

So when you're thinking about referral partners and your network, think about that. Even if they're not your ideal client, can they spot your ideal client in a crowd and be like, you should go work with Susan. You should go work with Brandy. That's exactly how they help people. That's exactly what they do.

when I'm promoting Magic Marketing Machine, we don't even talk about messaging because a lot of people don't know that they need it. You probably know you need it. That's why you opened this podcast episode. But my people, they're like, Yeah, I just want to like grow on Instagram, spend less time on my phone and get clients. Cool. So I sell them that. But then I'm gonna be honest with you, messaging is a very key part of this. When your messaging is clear, your Instagram grows faster.

Because people understand who you are and if you're for them and what they're gonna get out of it. That's what it boils down to. So then every post can speak to the right person and resonate with the right person.

And your content becomes about them instead of being so much about you, which then makes them go, ⁓ I'm interested in this. Boom, boom, views, views, clicks, engagement, comments, all the things.

And this isn't a just about making up your messaging. We have an entire proven process for it. It's a step by step, baby. A step by step and then an outside eye that's gonna help you work through it. Either me or one of my other coaches. So if you're listening to this and you're like, yeah, that's gonna crack the code.

That's the missing piece. I don't know how to say what I do. I'm not totally sure on the problem that I solve. People around me often ask me to explain what I do. My mom doesn't understand my business. That's all just a messaging problem. We can fix that.

It's also how you become the leader in something.

the authority on any given topic.

The go to person.

What if that was your future? How cool would that be? It is absolutely within reach.

And I'd love to help you get there.

See you next week.