M
Michael Ashley
Founder at Radi8 // Executive Coach // Host of the Inspiring Founders Podcast
In 25 years I've watched founders quietly kill good ideas and pour a year into bad ones — for the exact same reason. They never separated the idea from the way it was framed.
When a project stalls, the instinct is to read it as an effort problem. Work harder. Add a hire. Run one more push. But most stalled projects aren't stuck at the effort level. They're stuck at the root-problem level — and no amount of effort fixes a problem you've diagnosed wrong. You just get to the wall faster.
There are really only two reasons a project won't move, and they look identical from the inside:
The idea is wrong. There's no real problem underneath it, or no one who'll pay to solve it. Effort here is expensive theater.
The framing is wrong. The problem is real and worth solving — but you've aimed it at the wrong buyer, entered through the wrong door, or described it in words that don't match how anyone actually experiences it. Effort here isn't wasted; it's just pointed at the wrong target.
The trap is that both feel the same. Both produce silence, flat numbers, and a team that's working hard with nothing to show. So before you spend more, the question isn't "how do we push harder?" It's "which of these two am I actually looking at?"
Here's the diagnostic I run:
Does the problem exist when you're not in the room? A real problem shows up in what people already do — the workarounds, the spreadsheets, the money they're spending to cope. If the problem only appears when you pitch it, you likely have an idea problem, not a framing one. Effort won't save it.
Change the words, not the product — does the response change? Describe the same thing to the same person using their language, their trigger, their stakes. If a sharper frame suddenly gets nods where you got blank stares, the idea was never the issue. The framing was.
Follow the "no." When people pass, are they saying "I don't have that problem" or "I have it, but not like that / not from you"? The first is an idea signal. The second is a framing signal — and it's fixable without starting over.
Would a different buyer make this obvious? Sometimes the idea is right and the audience is wrong. Moving the same solution to a segment that feels the pain acutely turns a hard sell into an easy one. That's framing, not effort.
The reason this matters: the cost of confusing the two is enormous. Treat a framing problem as an effort problem and you burn a year grinding on something that only needed a repositioning. Treat an idea problem as a framing problem and you keep polishing the message on a thing the market was never going to buy.
Clarity here is cheaper than persistence. Diagnose the root before you spend the next quarter on the symptom.
So a question worth sitting with this week:
The project that's stalled right now — are you actually sure it's a bad idea, or have you just never tested whether it's a framing problem wearing a bad-idea disguise? …more
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Told 2 times, Jul 17, 2026 – Jul 28, 2026
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Before a client builds anything — the new website, the course, the funnel, the rebrand — I ask the same questions. Most projects don't survive them. That's the point.
Coaches and consultants are builders by nature. When growth stalls, the instinct is to make something: a new offer, a new content plan, a new brand. Building feels like progress. Building the wrong thing is the most expensive form of standing still.
So before anything gets built, I ask:
Who exactly is this for? I want a person you could name, with a problem they'd describe in their own words. A demographic doesn't count.
What evidence says they want it? Behavior is evidence: what they already do, already pay for, already work around. Encouragement from friends is not.
What are they doing about this problem today? If the answer is "nothing," be careful. People who live comfortably with a problem rarely pay to solve it.
Why you? What in your background makes you the credible one, and can a stranger see that credibility, or does it live only in your head?
What's the one constraint? If everything feels equally important, nothing is. Name the single thing that, once moved, unlocks the rest.
Clients sometimes get frustrated at this stage. They came with a solution, and I keep questioning the diagnosis. That's the job. A sharper problem definition beats more effort every time, and it costs a lot less than finding out after launch.
Which of these would be hardest for you to answer with real evidence today?
#IndependentConsultant #Coaching #CustomerDiscovery #IdealClient
