Why Smart Cybersecurity Teams Struggle to Explain What They Do

Success Hacks
Written By Laura Kenner

Lessons I Took Away From My Conversation With Joel Benge, the “Nerd Who Talks Good”

If you’ve ever watched a room full of smart, technical people talk past each other about messaging, this episode will feel painfully familiar.

I sat down with Joel Benge, founder of MessageSpecs, for this Community Spotlight because he works in the exact tension most cybersecurity teams live in every day.

They know their product works.
They know it’s technically impressive.
They just can’t explain it in a way that lands.

Joel’s entire career sits at the intersection of deep technical knowledge and clear communication. He’s worked in cybersecurity, federal government, startups, and agencies. He’s also a former theater kid, which honestly explains a lot.

This conversation was equal parts practical, validating, and occasionally uncomfortable in the best way. Here are the lessons that stuck with me.

“Dumbing It Down” Is the Wrong Goal

One of the first things Joel challenged was the idea that cybersecurity messaging needs to be dumbed down.

That framing misses the point.

The problem isn’t complexity. The problem is sequence.

Most teams lead with the wrong layer of information. They open with architecture diagrams, data sheets, or Gartner categories before answering the most basic question any human has:

Why should I care?

Joel breaks this down using a simple but powerful structure. Emotion first. Then logic. Then credibility.

If you skip the emotional hook and jump straight into proof, people disengage. Not because they’re incapable of understanding the tech, but because they don’t yet know why it matters to them.

Clear messaging isn’t about removing intelligence. It’s about earning attention.

Most Messaging Fails Before Marketing Even Touches It

This was one of the most validating parts of the conversation for anyone in GTM.

Joel sees the same pattern over and over again. Marketing is handed a fuzzy idea, conflicting inputs, and a deadline. Then everyone wonders why the output doesn’t work.

The root problem isn’t execution. It’s alignment.

Founders, product leaders, sales, and marketing often hold slightly different versions of the company story in their heads. Individually, they all make sense. Collectively, they create chaos.

You can’t scale messaging if the people inside the company aren’t aligned on what they’re actually trying to say.

No amount of copywriting polish fixes that.

The MessageDeck Works Because It Forces People to Shut Up and Think

Joel’s MessageDeck Method was one of the most interesting things we talked about, partly because it’s so simple.

Instead of open debate, whiteboard battles, or loudest-voice-wins workshops, he uses structured prompts. Everyone writes. No one argues. Everything gets put on the table.

What happens next is the magic.

Patterns emerge. Shared beliefs surface. The thing everyone thought was “obvious” but never articulated finally gets said out loud.

Joel said something that really stuck with me. Nine times out of ten, there’s already a brilliant idea in the room. It’s just buried under jargon, habits, and competing priorities.

The deck doesn’t create clarity. It reveals it.

Technical Credibility Still Matters. Just Not First.

Another important nuance Joel brought up is that clarity doesn’t mean hiding the technical depth.

Cybersecurity buyers, especially practitioners, absolutely care about how things work. They want to know how a tool fits into their environment, how it integrates, and what it actually does day to day.

The mistake is assuming that information belongs at the top of the conversation.

Good messaging creates a path. High-level value pulls people in. Technical detail is there when they’re ready for it.

Breadcrumbs matter.

If someone wants to go deep, let them. But don’t force everyone to start there.

Messaging Is a System, Not a One-Time Exercise

One of the most practical takeaways from this conversation was Joel’s emphasis on systems.

Messaging isn’t a website project. It’s not a launch artifact. It’s not a PDF you check off and forget.

It’s a living system that sales, marketing, leadership, and customer success all use differently, but consistently.

When teams don’t treat messaging this way, they end up reinventing it constantly. Different decks. Different descriptions. Different promises.

That’s how trust erodes, both internally and externally.

AI Can Help, But It Can’t Think for You

We also talked about AI, because of course we did.

Joel uses tools like ChatGPT and Claude every day, but not as a replacement for thinking. He uses them to beat the blank page, surface patterns, and check for consistency across his work.

The key difference is intent.

AI is useful when you already know what you’re trying to say and need help organizing it. It’s dangerous when you use it to avoid doing the hard work of figuring out your message in the first place.

Tools don’t fix unclear thinking. They amplify it.

My Big Takeaway

This conversation reinforced something I’ve seen across cybersecurity over and over again.

The teams that win aren’t the loudest. They’re the clearest.

They respect their audience. They respect their own expertise. And they put in the work to align internally before broadcasting externally.

Joel doesn’t help people sound smarter. He helps them be understood.

If you’re building, marketing, or selling in cybersecurity and feel like your messaging isn’t landing, this episode is worth your time. There’s a lot here that will make you rethink how you talk about what you do.

More Community Spotlights like this coming soon.

Learn More About Joel Benge

Joel Benge is the founder of MessageSpecs and the voice behind the “Nerd Who Talks Good” brand. He works with technical founders, cybersecurity teams, and GTM leaders who know their product inside and out but struggle to explain why it matters to anyone outside the room.

With a background that spans cybersecurity, federal government work, startups, and creative agencies, Joel specializes in helping smart teams find clarity without losing credibility. His MessageDeck Method helps align product, marketing, and leadership around language that actually sticks.

If you want to learn more from Joel or dive deeper into his work, here’s where to find him:

If jargon-heavy messaging makes you cringe and clarity matters to you, Joel is absolutely worth following.

Laura Kenner

Founder of BootstrapCyber.com, the community for cyber business pros.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-kenner/
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