Our journey to Clear U
I’m Carolyn, and that’s me on the right, in the boat. And on the left is Naomi. We’re the co-founders of Clear U. Welcome to our story.
the way it began
Thirty years of friendship and shop talk
Like two halves of a creative whole, Naomi and I became fast friends over 30 years ago when we both worked for a local health unit. Soon, we each started our own firms: Clear Language @ Work and Naomi Shacter Graphic Design. Although we collaborated on diverse projects, our shop talk inevitably turned to all things clarity.
The aha moment
Let’s address the problem at the root
As we continued making the complex clear for our respective clients, a lightening bolt struck me hard, figuratively of course. Instead of clarifying other people’s writing after the fact, why not give them the support to write clearly themselves, in the first place?
The turning point
Clear U was born
We made it our mission to bring my aha moment to fruition, and launched our new business called Clear U. And there began our quest to help organizations train their people to write clearly on their own.
the pivot
We jumped ship to board our own
We stepped back from our businesses and client work to focus on developing our first Clear U product—The Plain Language Skill Builder. And we built it to last. With longevity in mind, readers like you can fall back on it for as long and as often as you like.
Wishing you smooth sailing along your plain language journey.
Carolyn Wilby and Naomi Shacter
Co-founders, Clear U
Charlie and Murphy, Clear U mascots
