Project kickoff sessions don’t always go smoothly or feel good. The moment we ask the hard questions, the mood can shift. Faces tighten. Voices get a little sharper. Stern glances are exchanged. It’s human nature. When the spotlight hits parts of the business, no one wants to admit could be better, ego and self-preservation sound alarms and defenses kick in. Because building a highly profitable business isn’t some lucky break. You know it’s blood, sweat, and a hell of a lot of grind.
I’m not here to judge anyone’s hustle or make them feel bad about what’s not working. But I know how surface fixes are good for a minute, but they don’t hold up in the long term. If we’re working together towards real and lasting results, I need the full, ugly story. I am not in business to tell people what they want to hear or support them to keep doing what worked before but isn’t anymore. That means poking around in the stuff you’d rather leave buried. So yes, that can feel prickly. But that’s what happens when you stop avoiding truths and start dealing with reality. Like my business coach says, everything touches everything. So how you show up in your business, the things you avoid and what you pour your energy into, reflects your other interpersonal relationships.
Growth hides beneath what we’re unwilling to admit
Marketing and brand are often treated as a surface game or with a level of disdain, so there’s automatically some resistance, conscious or not. The foundation of lasting growth lies in this excavation work, where ego takes a backseat and reality steers the ship across some rough, sometimes uncharted waters. Effective marketing transformation, just like a real-life one, demands raw, unfiltered truth. Without confronting the uncomfortable stuff, even the smartest plans will collapse in time.
Looking beneath the surface means examining more than numbers. We need to identify outdated habits, hidden gaps, and undetected misalignments that hinder effective marketing, brand authority and ultimately business growth. What got you here won’t get you where you want to go. Most marketing strategies miss their intended mark because they skip this deep work and instead allocate time and money chasing entertainment tactics or quick wins that have minimal and short-term impact.
It’s like any relationship; you can’t fix what’s broken by taking a Bali trip and pretending everything’s fine. If you keep dodging the tough conversations, the cracks just widen. How you show up in your business, what you choose to avoid, and where you focus your energy are all reflections of how you handle your hardest personal relationships. Both need brutal honesty and proper attention to flourish.
Why some questions feel challenging
Some questions hit a nerve because they dig into how someone runs their business and who they and their team are as leaders. When someone questions a process, decision, or legacy system, it can feel like an attack on competence or values. It’s easy to take that personally.
It’s necessary to build a trusting partnership where brutal honesty is the starting point. This isn’t meant to embarrass or judge. But you can’t build a brand that stands for anything real and a business that will sustain if you’re not willing to look in the mirror, articulate your vision clearly and face what’s working and what’s not.
Trust doesn’t appear overnight, but it does bloom in the soil of truth. When the uncomfortable stuff comes up and you face it without blame or even self judgement, that’s when trust anchors and genuine change begins. Am I still talking about brand and marketing? I don’t even know anymore.
Truth over easy answers, always
No one enjoys some types of conversations we need to have as people, parents, partners, as founders, friends, leaders and colleagues. As humans just trying to figure shit out as we go, because no two businesses are the same even within sectors and niches.
The plan is to send prep tools up front sooner. We won’t rely just on that. We set the tone in the room. Firm, fair, and unapologetic. If you want quick fixes and easy wins, this isn’t for you. Truth feels risking and raw, but the market rewards honesty and guts; and it’s the only way to build something that lasts.
