Expressing Explicit Expectations

Hey {{ first_name }},

You said it. You know you said it. You could point to the exact conversation.

And the thing you asked for still came back not quite right.

So you fixed it yourself. Again. On a Saturday.

Here's what I've watched happen over and over this past month, with solo founders, with founders running a small but mighty teams, with founders whose whole operation is two contractors and a VA in a different time zone: the expectation is fully formed. It's just fully formed in your head.

You're not unclear. You're under-expressed. And those cost you the same amount of money.

I call the fix Expressing Explicit Expectations. Three words, three moves, and most of us have opportunity in all three moves. Let’s break it down:


Expectations: you have them, even when you say you don't

You have high expectations of yourself, for sure, and often of those around you. Yet when I ask founders what they expect, I usually hear a version of: "Honestly, my expectations are pretty low." Or "I'm not sure what to expect when they don’t know how to do this yet." Or "I'm just testing something to see if it works, then I’ll know the expected outcome."

That's the surface. Underneath it, you absolutely have an expectation. You expect someone to solve the problem, to get a desired outcome, to provide the deliverables.

The expectation exists. It just hasn't been said…in a way that’s been heard and understood by others.

And here's the part that trips up almost everyone:

By expectation, you really mean an outcome, not a task list completed.

Rattling off the five things you want done feels like setting expectations. It isn't. When you're deep in your own business, listing the steps is the fastest thing to do — you already know them. So you hand over the how and skip the what and why.

Then the five things get done and you're still not happy. Go one, two, three layers deeper and you'll find the real frustration: you didn’t name the outcome you wanted.

You are driving outcomes. You want people around you who can deliver outcomes. How they get there matters far less than whether it arrives.

Let go of the how.


Explicit: where can you be more specific?

Explicit means fully and clearly expressed, leaving no room for doubt, confusion, or hidden meaning.

Clear. Direct. Unwavering. Providing it is actually an act of kindness.

This is the layer founders skip because it feels like over-explaining. It isn't. It's the difference between "make the proposal look better" and "a client should be able to skim page one and know exactly what they're buying and what it costs."


Expressed: how many ways have you said it, or have you truly said it at all?

You thought it. You may have said it once, quickly, on a call where three other things got decided. Maybe you typed it in Slack at 11pm.

That's not expressed. That's mentioned.

Expressed means the other person has it — in their words, not just yours. If it's a new direction or you're asking someone to work differently than they have been, once is never enough. It gets said again, in more than one place, until you hear it come back to you.


The working-backwards checklist

Take the one thing that isn't going the way you want right now and run it in reverse:

1. Name the outcome. What does done look like? By when? How will you both know it's right?

2. Get explicit. Where am I still assuming? What could someone reasonably read differently than I mean it? What am I willing to be unwavering about?

3. Choose how to express it. Said out loud? Written down where they can find it again? Repeated next week? And the fastest check there is — ask them to tell you what they think is expected of them and listen for the gap.

That last one is uncomfortable the first time. Do it anyway. What comes back is almost never what's in your head, and that's the whole discovery.


Where else is this hiding?

Once you see it in one place, you'll see opportunities to express explicit expectations everywhere: 

-       Who you serve, and the outcomes clients can expect from you

-       What you expect of your clients — scope, timelines, responsiveness — that you've never actually said.

-       What you expect of yourself. You hold a standard most people couldn't sit with for a week. When did you last write it down?

-       Family. That one's always a rich dig.

And the one that changes everything: where can you invite the people around you to express their explicit expectations back to you?

Hit reply and tell me

What's one expectation you're carrying that you've never actually said out loud?

Say it this week. Then hit reply and tell me what happened in that conversation. I read every response.


► Ready to build the revenue rhythm underneath all of this?

Join me for my 100% FREE masterclass for professional services founders:

How to Build Predictable, Scalable Revenue Even Though You Don’t Love Selling

📅 August 18th at 11:00am CDT

Here's what we're covering live:

-       The 42 Dive Principle — how a single play from one of the winningest college football teams holds the secret to your next 10 clients, and why focus beats volume every single time.

-       The Sales Identity Reframe — stop trying to become a salesperson. With the Identity Statement template, you'll set a new ceiling for your growth by simply being yourself.

-       The Revenue Leader Rhythm — how to produce a predictable pipeline regardless of the economy, where consistency comes from discipline, not motivation.

Save my seat

Win your way,

Michael