I fixed the Democratic party's midterm pitch in under an hour.

TL;DR- I developed this thing called The Market Lens™ that takes the guesswork out of talking about what you do in tricky economic times. What you do + The Market Lens= folks that get it, want it and want to buy it even in the middle of a big R-word. I tested it out on the Democratic party's midterm pitch to the nation. The results are below.

I’m not one of those who needed to be convinced to vote.

Despite very much not being a morning person, I was up and at my local polling station by 6 am with the fam.

I hadn’t even had my tea.

What that’s meant for the last few months, is that I’ve been blissfully unaware of the political play by play that would have taken up my life even a few years ago.

Oh, I’ve been around for the hits.

You know, the casual terrorists making a big splash and the billionaires that remain completely unphased by them.

The Handmaid’s Tale brought to life in the bodies of children.

But my stance, especially given attentional overload and just general mental fatigue, has been news avoidant.

Then, about a week ago, whilst chatting with my mom, (Physician, historian and unrepentant political junkie) I looked up at her muted television, and happened to catch the captioned remarks of President Biden.

“Noo…they’re using the wrong Market Lens.”

It honestly slipped out, unconsciously.

And my mother was (understandably) completely baffled.

After navigating my own shock, explaining my “newest invention” (her words, not mine) and fielding her proud but Nigerian-mother-grade insistence that I patent it immediately, I sat back and realized I might really have something.

So, I started paying a little more attention to what the usual suspects were saying, to see if anyone else had caught it.

Instead, I watched political commentators grouse, grumble and groan that the economy needed to be the focus. Not the eminent threat to democracy as we know it.

As a brand scientist, student of behavioral psychology and conflict mediator, I knew it wasn’t that simple.

“Denial is easier than admitting we have a problem.”

That comes from the very astute Vanessa Burnett.

And she’s absolutely right.

It is the path of least resistance and therefore, it is the status quo.

Furthermore, it gives our problem the fuel it needs to spread, and even more insidiously, to normalize.

So, we can't ignore the threat to democracy when we talk about politics.

On the other hand, the Market Lens—and just basic observational skills—tells me “democracy is in danger” isn't a compelling enough message on its own.

A dilemma.

Spoiler: The answer is to thread the needle between the thing we need to say (democracy is in danger) and the thing that will shape behavior.

After a summer of economic instability (with, a whopping 44% of Americans being forced to spend a huge chunk of—if not all of—their savings) most Americans want to be financially secure. Not merely financially stable.

If Biden and his team had been able to provide a super concrete prescription for that—of which the constituent parts of a healthy democracy are the cure—the Democratic party’s pitch may have looked a little more like this:

“At the end of the day, an honest day’s work should ensure your family is safe, that you can put food on the table and that you, your kids and your kid's kids have a fair and equal shot at the stability and security of the American Dream.

At it's best, our democracy, our way of life, authorizes you to guarantee that future for your family and vetoes those that would try to deny you that right.

Democracy entrusts you with influence and assumes your fundamental human needs and your thoughts on how to secure them should be given the same respect mine are.

As Americans, we belong to a very exclusive, very powerful club.

And a few power hungry fanatics have decided to hijack the republican party and to hold the security our families depend on for ransom. They've decided they know better than you and me. And that if we don't agree, well, they'll just break into our homes and smash grandpa's head in with a hammer.

We don't have to sink to the level of the cynical, sulking, few to beat back this attack.

All you have to do is vote.

Get your family to vote

And get your friends to vote.”

Pretty good for an hour of this sleep deprived, Grogu loving nerd’s time, pre her morning tea, no?

And before you think it, no.

I’m not a copywriting god.

I’m not a marketing phenom.

I’m a reasonably intelligent small business owner.

And if the Market Lens™ can help me--the great overthinker of our age--draft a pretty compelling political platform from scratch within an hour (including the ✨research™✨ of noticing the news for a couple of days), it can definitely help you tweak how you talk about what you do so that more of the right people connect with, notice and find it easy to commit to as we head into what may be a bumpy economic season.

Pssst. Want a quick win? A member of my audience just let me know that she got instant clarity on how to talk about her ish after she followed the step by step in here.

She completely updated the copy for her landing paģe, too.

You're welcome :)

But, do all of that after you vote, kay?