I’ve been reading (and listening to) a book called Kin: The Future of Family.

Sort of a modern take on the idea of “it takes a village”, it explores the importance of those people in your life that lie somewhere between friends, partner, and biological family.

Your ‘kin’.

The author, Sophie Lucido Johnson, is also a cartoonist, which means the book has a sprinkling of really helpful illustrations to bring some of the key points to life.

My favorite visuals were featured right up front in the first chapter.

It’s a series of three:

• Figure 1 - the fairy tale where two people’s needs and resources overlap perfectly
• Figure 2 - the more realistic scene where neither partner gets everything they need from the other person
• Figure 3 - a community where resources are shared freely and all people’s needs are met

Almost immediately after seeing these visuals on an initial flip — before even starting to read — it clicked.

I understood right away what the premise of the book was: she’s going to be making the case that Figure 3, the community, is the more optimal state.

Now, if I were simply looking for the book’s high-level takeaway or punchline, I could’ve stopped right there and not read the book.

The visuals nailed it.

But because she just gave those to me at the front of the book, it anchored me to her message from the jump, and then, elevated everything that came after it.

Every chapter, anecdote, tangent, cited research study now had context.

A frame.

A finish line.

Like she had given me a page in a coloring book, and then said ‘join me as I fill it all in’.

I mentioned I’ve been reading and listening to the book, swapping between the physical book and audiobook, and it occurred to me:

🤔 Those early visuals are seared into my brain. How did she present those in the audiobook?

Turns out, she didn’t.

When talking ‘Figure 1’, the spoken text itself described the nature of the fairy tale relationship, and then said, “if you want to see an illustration, visit my website.”

Then with Figure 2, and (in my opinion) the most important visual of the entire book, Figure 3, no mention of the visuals at all.

So, if you were only listening to this book, you had none of the benefit of the visual guideposts she gave away so effortlessly and generously in print.

What a bummer!

Two formats of the same book. Two wildly different reads.

You know me - I can’t help but see the parallels to our work.

As consultants, we can talk and talk and talk, but that unfairly leaves our clients on the hook to sort, process and store our valuable insights all themselves.

And while our clients are certainly capable of handling that, we lose control over how our message is received, interpreted, and even remembered.

But, if we can deliver our POV in crisp, simple-yet-striking visuals, up-front, we do them a great service by establishing an anchoring frame and then building from there.

Like giving them a page of a coloring book, and coloring it together.

That’s the power of turning your expertise visual.

Want one more proof point?

Imagine having read this email without showing you Sophie’s visuals right up front.

I imagine you would’ve trailed off long ago.

And I wouldn’t have blamed you.

💡

-Wes