5 Language That You Can Repeat

In 2014 I was introduced to Adam Braun

Adam Braun is a New York Times bestselling author and the Founder & CEO of MissionU.

He was previously Founder & CEO of Pencils of Promise, the award-winning organization that has built nearly 400 schools around the world.

That’s how I got to know who he was, through Pencils of Promise.

Marie Forleo interviewed him in 2013 and he told the story of how he created this organization after traveling abroad as a college student and meeting a young boy begging on the streets of India, who when asked what he wanted most in the world, simply answered, “a pencil.”

That shook his world. And Adam, inspired me.

Jump to March 2016 and me messing with Snapchat for the first time. I followed Adam. He was one of the only people that I recognized on Snapchat at that time.

He would post super personal random content, but one day he posted about a webinar around how to get funding for your non-profit.

I’ve always had a dream in creating some kind of non-profit. At that time I had no idea what that would be or even if I would EVER have one, but decided to sign up.

It was one of THE most informational webinars I’ve ever attended and he was SO personal and down to earth.

It was through that webinar that he introduced to me what I now call within the context of The E-League and what I work on with my clients: “Language that you can repeat.”

That’s a bit of a back story of when this concept started to simmer, because of a particular slide that Adam used during that webinar, which I will share in a little bit.

It also was so poignant because one of THE biggest questions that I get asked by now thousands of podcasters is “how do I grow my audience?”

And all variations therein.

Let’s cut to when this concept was no longer simmering, but boiling.

In April of 2017 I ran the first round of The E-League. I was deep diving into all of these incredible women’s work and of course refining how to communicate what I understood in my gut but was having a hard time sharing.

In comes an article from Buzzfeed all about the then newly launched Pod Save the People from Black Lives Matter activist DeRay McKesson. (Ma Ke Sen)

The article included a quote that blew my socks off. Here it is

“I’m trying to figure out how we give people language that they can repeat. I think a lot of the media, not just podcasts, are doing a lot of the ‘Let me explain the world to you’ format but not in a way listeners can actually keep explaining the world to people. I want to be intentional about how I use platforms to amplify this work. I think a podcast will be a great opportunity to do that.”

Although this quote is about social & political activism within media, and within this article more via podcast, it can absolutely be applied to what we do, how we do it, and how we can take responsibility to ‘give people language that they can repeat’.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/darrensands/deray-mckesson-is-going-to-host-a-crooked-media-podcast?utm_term=.wylx44roOY#.vd0jYYvKZR

So let’s dive deeper into the concept, not yet the tactics of how this is directly related to podcast growth.

Mr. McKesson (Ma Ke Sen) says that we are currently explaining “the world to you’ format but not in a way listeners can actually keep explaining the world to people”

As podcasters, as those of us that use our voices, we tend to err on the side of being vague and sometimes noncommittal about who we are or what we stand for.

Or we often assume that those listening are already aware and possibly even knowledgeable about concepts that are familiar and constant to us.

We might use jargon.

We might gloss over content or give a very rough idea about why we’re interviewing someone, or why we’ve decided to cover a topic or why we even have a podcast.

Those words coming from our mouths might impact people.

Those words might be enough, as in you reached THAT person. They got it. They felt it. They totally align with you. They get you, they will come back.

The question is - will they be able to communicate YOU to others?

There are two ways in which we can communicate effectively with other people about the things that matter to us:

• With our bodies
• With our words

When I say with our bodies, think about HOW, in real life, you share about a dish you LOVED with your significant other, or how you tell your best friend about the crazy awesome movie you just watched, or a brilliant podcast episode that was insanely powerful for you.

Usually we use ALL of ourselves: our arms, our torsos, our face, our LACK of words, our voice intonation, our tears, our laughter, our noises - from human to human, in real life, sometimes THIS is the language that is repeated.

That’s how we transfer the why, the need for the one that receives our enthusiasm (positive or negative.)

It’s energetic and hard to pinpoint

The other way to communicate effectively is through the clarity of our words, which is when Mr. Adam Braun comes back into the mix.

In that webinar that I took in the spring of 2016 there were 2 slides that provide the tactics of how to do this ‘Language that you can repeat.’

He taught the following checklist around an effective pitch:

• It needs to be short
• It needs to have clear language
• It needs to be TRANSFERABLE FROM ONE PERSON TO THE NEXT ← This one people. This one.
• It needs to have optimistic language when describing your WHY
• It needs to have active language when describing your HOW

How do these 5 check points apply to your podcast and growing your podcast?

How do these 5 check points apply to your podcasting business, or your work?

Let’s start at the minimum taking a look at your bio in social media.

At the maximum with your About Podcast Page (or description) or your About Me page on your website.

And yes, I want you to think into your personal language as well, because remember we are moving from show to ecosystem. All parts of your online presence feed the whole.

The whole is how we began this journey - your Foundation - what is that underlying basis or principle of you?

I’m not done just yet.

The other powerful slide that Adam had in this webinar was one that said this:

The First Follower validates your idea and attracts the masses

Because ultimately it’s not about you promoting yourself like crazy. It’s not about how often you post on social media, or what platform you’re on or not on, or how big your list is.

It’s about the clarity of your language and the ability of that First Follower to attract the masses aka tell someone else.

This is what I label as influence, which is built from that ONE person with the capacity to repeat to others about you, because of your pristine salient language.

Before I wrap up this episode I want to share a little more about influence, this time from long time OG podcaster Christopher S Penn, someone that I’ve followed on the online space since I stepped into it in 2006. He is still co-hosting his long running podcast Marketing Over Coffee.

Here is what he says:

“Influence is action, engagement, people doing something. When someone takes action beyond a simple tap of a button, pay attention and engage.”

I’ll leave you with that one quote for now, as we will get into how to measure beyond simply focusing on download numbers in a future episode. And also, note the last part of that quote - pay attention and engage.

This Language That You Can Repeat is not static or stagnant, it is a practice, and it happens in our willingness to pay attention and engage with those that DO, whether it’s ONE person or hundreds.

For now I offer an exercise that you can do periodically - give yourself a Language That You Can Repeat Audit.

• Use the effective pitch 5 point checklist to streamline your social media descriptions aka bio and your podcast description.
• Practice saying your newly crafted podcast description or your personal bio - speak it - notice the ease or not of the words that you are saying - and based on that knowledge adjust
• If you’re stuck - or want to practice - Vox me - go for it - share with me why you do what you do, if you can’t find the words - LOOK AT YOUR APPLICATION THAT YOU SUBMITTED TO ME, I promise you will find the language right there!

As always, hit me up on Voxer either privately or within the group chat.