What Transformation Do You Provide?
When our oldest was in 1st or 2nd grade, Harry Potter was EVERYTHING.
And there was a toy called the Polyjuice Potion Maker.
The commercial showed a kid drinking potion… and turning into a pig.
That was it. He had to have it!
Christmas Eve, he tore through every other gift to get to that one.
He wasn’t excited about the little potion packets or the plastic cauldron or the stirring wand. He wanted the transformation.
So he made the potion, handed it to me, and watched closely.
I drank it.
And… nothing. Still human.
You could see the exact moment it hit him. His face dropped. “Wait… why didn’t it work?”
The toy didn’t do what he wanted it to do.
What He Was Really Buying
The product wasn’t the point. The outcome was.
Your customers are wired the same way.
They’re not trying to understand how you do what you do. They’re trying to answer one question: will this take away what I’m struggling with — or make my life meaningfully better?
That’s it. They want a transformation.
A Big Aha
Here’s what I see consistently when I work with business owners who have been at it for a while.
When I ask them what transformation they provide, I get a puzzled look.
Not because they don’t deliver one. They just haven’t thought about their work that way. They’ve been so deep in the work for so long that they’ve lost touch with what it felt like to be the person who once needed it themselves.
So I ask it differently:
- What does your customer have before they find you – and how does it make them feel?
- What do they have after – and how does their life look different?
That’s a very different conversation than listing features and benefits. You can see the wheels turning. And when it clicks, what seemed complicated suddenly has a very simple answer.
The customer was never buying the process. They were buying the feeling on the other side of it.
💡Try This
Describe what your customer’s life looks like before they find you and what it looks like after.
Not what you did. Not how you did it. Just what changed for them.
Here’s what it looks like for a wealth manager:
Before: “I don’t know if I’ll have enough money.”
After: “I feel confident about my financial future.”
Simple. Clear. Something anyone could repeat.
That’s the test. If your customer could say it to a friend over dinner and the friend immediately thought of someone who needs you — you’ve found it.
And when you find it, something shifts.
You stop describing what you do and start speaking directly to the person who needs it most. Your team can say it. Your customers can say it. The people your customers tell can say it too.
That’s not just a better message. That’s a business that grows because the right people finally recognize themselves in what you do.
I want that for you. Every tool, every insight, every Aha — that’s why I write this.
To lighting the world on fire with what you do,
Laurie