The Five Words That Changed My Business
- 1 hour ago
- 2 min read
By Jeanette Brown
Relationship Coach & Founder
I’m Jeanette Brown, a late-life founder in my early 60s, and my work snapped into focus the day I wrote five words on an index card: repair before results. Until then, I was trying to be “all things communication.” It looked impressive on a website but it didn’t move people. So I rebuilt everything as small, measurable pilots with a 24-hour repair rule baked in. If something wobbled, I circled back within a day, owned the impact, and made a concrete fix.
No drama. Just repair, then keep going.
The first test was humbling. I rented a room for a workshop I was sure would sell out. Three people enrolled. Old me would have canceled and rewritten my entire business plan at 2 a.m. Instead, I ran a white-glove pilot. I recorded every question, rewrote the promise in their words, moved the session to a lunchtime slot, and tracked one metric: time-to-repair after conflict. That quiet cohort became my best referral engine. The moment I chose one sentence to stand on, the right clients could finally find me.
Pilots lowered the temperature for everyone. Clients got outcomes they could feel this week - clearer handoffs, faster repairs, fewer repeat blow-ups and I got clean data. The 24-hour repair rule turned the inevitable friction into a trust-builder. The work became lighter and braver: fewer bespoke one-offs, more repeatable wins, and a simple identity people could talk about without me in the room. I stopped chasing “perfect” and started collecting proof.
If you’re ready to level up, here’s how I’d start. Choose one sentence that states your promise. Not a paragraph - one sentence you’re willing to be measured against. Ship the smallest version in two weeks. Pre-write how you’ll respond when something goes sideways: who you’ll contact, what you’ll tweak first, when you’ll follow up. Measure one outcome a busy person can grasp at a glance. Then repeat. You don’t need a rebrand; you need evidence.
I still keep those five words on my desk. They’re the guardrails that let me do bolder work without burning out: repair before results. The results come faster when you stop pretending the repair won’t be necessary.
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