"The Grandma Test"

The little old lady in this photo can make or break how you speak.

Executives spend most of their time talking shop with people who finish their sentences for them. Then they're booked on a mainstream business panel or land in front of investors who've never worked a day in that industry. 

They forget they're not at the office anymore and sound like they're speaking Archaic Sumerian. 

The best executives glide between those two worlds -- the INSIDE and the OUTSIDE. 

That's why I created an exercise around someone who has zero built-in familiarity with your world.

I call it 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗺𝗮 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁. I ask my client one question: 

"𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗺𝗮 𝘀𝗼 𝘀𝗵𝗲 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗮𝗶𝗱?"

I gave this test to a founder once. His first answer included the phrase "as more money and assets move into digital systems." I asked if his grandmother would know what "digital systems" meant. He admitted she wouldn't.

The key to passing The Grandma Test: assume she knows nothing about your industry, and build every sentence meticulously up from there. 

Consider starting a sentence with: "You know how..." and describe something Grandma knows well. Then start the next sentence with "Well, what we do is..." which grounds it into something they know already.

Or use an easy-to-visualize metaphor that Grandma can see and comprehend. I used this one at TON Foundation: "We're like a high-speed railroad carrying millions of dollars to the people living at train stations all over the world and putting it instantly in their wallets."

𝗜𝗳 𝗶𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝘃𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗺𝗮, 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝘃𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗲.