Your Message isn’t fighting for attention. It’s fighting for survival.

The Myth of Captured Attention...

The story everyone loves to tell is that attention spans are shrinking.

But that’s not entirely true.

Humans haven’t lost their ability to focus. We’ve just lost the luxury of it.

Our brains are processing more inputs, faster, and in shorter bursts.

That’s adaptation.

Unfortunately, corporate communication didn't get the memo., they're still writing for the mythical “ideal reader”  sitting at a desk, reading every word.

Blocks of texts, no visual cues and talking about themselves.

We assume our audience's attention is a given:

They opened your email; you have their attention.

They showed up to your town hall; you have their attention.

They downloaded your whitepaper; you definitely have their attention.

Except we don’t.

What we have at best is a fleeting glance to make an impression, which gets interrupted by the competing priorities.

It's what I affectionately call your audience's Third Space, a landscape of transition moments:

• Checking messages while waiting for a meeting to start

• Reading a snippet of a report between calls

• Glancing at a slide in a group chat

• Listening to a recap in a corridor conversation

• Sitting at the back of a taxi, giving directions

• Skimming Slack while ordering a coffee.

And in the Third Space, attention isn’t the goal — survival is.

Does your message survive the scroll, the retelling over coffee?

Can someone remember the point of your white paper five days later — even if they forgot your exact words?

Why survival matters

B2B buying cycles are notoriously long. Depending on the industry, a purchase can take anywhere from 3 months to 18 months.

Now imagine every message you write (that strategy deck, campaign pitch, or internal update) gets passed, summarised, misquoted, and reinterpreted by at least 10 other people.

That means your words don’t just need to grab attention in the moment. They need to retain their clarity, meaning, and impact over time.

If your copy is too vague, too flashy, or too dependent on context, it won’t survive being re-read later. And that re-read is where most deals are won and lost.

I’ve spent years working with B2B communication teams and I kept seeing the same thing: brilliant ideas getting lost in the journey.

The Third Space framework holds communicators to higher standards:

• You have to know what truly matters.

• You have to write for clarity

So here's my simple checklist to help you audit your writing.

Every word or story should be designed to C.A.S.S.

• Carry — Would someone want to repeat this out loud?

• Adapt — Would this still make sense if it got cut in half?

• Stick — Would someone be able to retell this after one read?

• Sign — Would people know this came from us?

1. Design for the Reteller

The first person reading your message will not be the last one explaining it.

Give them lines they can lift and carry into a meeting:

• Repeatable phrasing

• Short, defensible statements

• Visual, visceral talking points

Test: Can someone retell your message in 20 seconds after skimming it?

If not, rewrite.

2. Anchor to Shared Frictions (not shared goals)

Committees don’t unite around visions.They unite around headaches.

Future promises (“Imagine if…”) don’t survive retelling.Present frictions do.

Identify the cross-functional pain everyone recognises:slow approvals, workflow chaos, inconsistent data, endless handoffs.

Then position your message as the reduction of that shared friction.

Test: Can at least three roles nod at the same line for different reasons?

If yes: your message survives the room.

What Does This Mean for You?

Your messages no longer live in neat, linear reading experiences.They live in the Third Space.

They’re:

• read while multitasking

• remembered while distracted

• repeated by someone who didn’t catch every word

The modern B2B communicator’s real skill isn’t grabbing attention.

It’s designing messages that survive distortion.

If your message passes CASS, it survives.

If it doesn’t, attention was never the problem — the message was.

2 questions to ask your team:

• Are we writing to survive multiple readers and filters — not just to get initial attention?

• Do we start with what matters most to the reader in the moment — or with what we want to say?

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If your multi-audience messaging is getting stuck, I help you build one that creates movement.

🎯 Hi, I'm Vivien,

• I specialise in psychology-led, layered, multi-audience message survival and work with Heads of Communications, CMOs, and B2B teams

• I keep your messaging intact as it moves through stakeholders, decision-makers, and high-stakes moments and prevent message distortion before it costs you critical decisions.

Because you're not selling to 1 person. You're selling to 10.

See how I can help you