Why That Worked #20: Snipd—What Your Brand Name is Really Saying to Customers

Summary

Marketing Made Simple: Why That Worked #20 – Snipd—What Your Brand Name is Really Saying to Customers

Release Date: May 21, 2025

In the twentieth episode of the "Why That Worked" podcast, hosted by Donald Miller and Kyle Reed and presented by StoryBrand AI, the discussion centers around the strategic importance of brand naming and clear messaging. The episode delves into how a brand name can significantly influence customer perception and engagement, using the podcasting app Snipd as a case study.

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Introduction to the Episode

Bobby Richards opens the episode by introducing the new format of the podcast, emphasizing the delivery of actionable insights and key takeaways each week to help listeners implement effective marketing strategies. He highlights that new episodes are available on the StoryBrand YouTube channel and various podcast platforms.

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The Naming Game: Snipd

Kyle Reed initiates the main discussion by introducing a product he is passionate about, albeit without revealing its purpose initially. This interactive approach engages Donald Miller and, subsequently, the audience to guess the product based solely on its name: "Snipd."

• Kyle Reed [01:24]: "Today, I am talking about a product, Don, that I'm obsessed with, but I'm not going to tell you what it is. I'm just going to give you the name."

• Donald Miller [01:58]: "Snipt is a podcasting app that uses AI to gather information of things you've listened to."

Through this dialogue, the hosts explore the effectiveness of the name "Snipd" in conveying the product’s functionality. Initially, Donald humorously guesses a completely unrelated product, illustrating the challenges of brand naming.

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The Curse of Knowledge in Branding

A significant portion of the episode addresses the "curse of knowledge," a concept introduced by Lee LeFever in his book The Art of Explanation. Donald Miller explains how being too close to a product can hinder the ability to communicate its essence clearly to customers.

• Donald Miller [05:40]: "The curse of knowledge is... most people are so close to their products and services, their ideas, they project that knowledge on the person they're talking to."

He uses the analogy of trying to convey a song by tapping the table, highlighting how internal familiarity with a product can make it difficult to articulate its value to others without confusion.

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Enhancing Brand Clarity

The hosts emphasize the importance of clear and straightforward messaging. They critique "Snipd’s" tagline, "Remember everything you learned from podcasts," suggesting it still lacks clarity in conveying the core function of the app.

• Donald Miller [03:10]: "Because you're not around every customer who's hearing about you to explain it."

Kyle Reed responds by explaining Snipd's functionality in detail, noting its use of AI to allow users to clip and remember specific parts of podcasts, thereby providing practical utility.

• Kyle Reed [03:48]: "It uses AI to analyze the podcast and then as you're listening to it, you can click this, the snipped button, and it will remember what you click."

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Community Learning and User Engagement

Kyle Reed introduces the concept of community learning in Snipd, where user-generated highlights enhance the app's functionality. This feature allows users to benefit from collective insights, similar to highlighting in Kindle.

• Kyle Reed [05:03]: "But if someone has listened to it, it's broken it all down, and it will give you all these different community highlights."

Donald Miller commends this feature but remains critical of the app's branding clarity, rating Snipd as a "C plus, B minus."

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Practical Messaging Tips for Businesses

The conversation shifts towards actionable advice for business owners to avoid the curse of knowledge by ensuring their messaging is clear and direct. Donald Miller stresses the necessity of specifying what a product does without assuming prior knowledge.

• Donald Miller [08:52]: "You don't want to have to say what it is. Is."

They discuss effective taglines through various examples, such as the importance of specificity in advertising messages.

• Donald Miller [19:12]: "So if I have a restaurant and I have order our cheeseburger, it's the best in town."

• Donald Miller [21:10]: "Don't ask them to put the thoughts you want them to think."

These examples illustrate how clear, concise messaging can significantly improve customer understanding and engagement.

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Overcoming Messaging Challenges

The hosts explore common pitfalls in brand messaging, such as using ambiguous language that doesn't clearly communicate the product's value. They highlight the necessity of external perspectives in crafting effective messages.

• Donald Miller [09:56]: "When you're writing a book, you have to always do that the whole time you're writing. You have to sit down and understand it, what you're saying from the reader's perspective."

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Call to Action: StoryBrand AI

Throughout the episode, there are natural incorporations of StoryBrand AI's offerings, encouraging listeners to utilize their services for clarifying brand messaging. Donald Miller and Kyle Reed consistently advocate for the tool's ability to help businesses articulate their value propositions effectively.

• Donald Miller [24:35]: "The controlling idea is say it clearly."

• Kyle Reed [24:43]: "And you can say it clearly at StoryBrand AI. Save you a lot of money there."

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Conclusion and Final Thoughts

In wrapping up, the hosts reiterate the critical takeaways:

1. Avoid the Curse of Knowledge: Ensure that messaging is clear and understandable to those unfamiliar with your product.
2. Be Specific: Clearly state what your product or service does without relying on assumptions.
3. Utilize Community Insights: Leverage user-generated content to enhance product functionality and appeal.
4. Seek External Feedback: Regularly evaluate your messaging from an outsider’s perspective to identify and rectify ambiguities.

The episode serves as a comprehensive guide for businesses aiming to refine their brand names and messaging strategies to better connect with their target audiences.

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Notable Quotes:

• Donald Miller [05:40]: "The curse of knowledge is... most people are so close to their products and services, their ideas, they project that knowledge on the person they're talking to."

• Donald Miller [21:10]: "Don't ask them to put the thoughts you want them to think."

• Kyle Reed [05:03]: "But if someone has listened to it, it's broken it all down, and it will give you all these different community highlights."

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This episode of "Why That Worked" underscores the pivotal role of clear, well-thought-out branding and messaging in the success of a product. By dissecting Snipd's branding challenges and providing actionable insights, Donald Miller and Kyle Reed offer valuable lessons for marketers and business owners striving to communicate their offerings effectively.

Transcript

[Bobby Richards]

Hey, hero makers, it's podcast producer Bobby Richards. I'm jumping in to share with you a new episode of our brand new podcast, why that worked, presented by StoryBrand AI with Donald Miller back in the host seat. Now, since we launched Marketing Made simple, we've been so grateful to have everybody tune in each week to learn how to make your marketing easy and make it work. Which is exactly why we're sharing new episodes of the why that Worked podcast here. In the old Marketing Made simple feed, each episode of the new show is going to deliver actionable insights and key takeaways that are all designed so you can implement them to help make whatever you're working on work. If you want to catch new episodes early, you can watch or listen every Monday. To watch the show, just go subscribe to the StoryBrand YouTube channel. And to listen, go follow why that worked, presented by StoryBrand AI wherever you enjoy your podcasts. All right, that's it from me. So grateful you're here and enjoy this week's episode of why that worked, presented by StoryBrand AI.

[Donald Miller]

Foreign.

[Bobby Richards]

You're listening to the why that Work podcast presented by StoryBrand AI. If you've ever wondered why certain brands, trends, or cultural phenomena find success while others don't, you're in the right place. Every week we unpack why something worked, then give you actionable insights that you can use in your own life. Now let's dive in with your hosts, Donald Miller and Kyle Reed.

[Kyle Reed]

Today, I am talking about a product, Don, that I'm obsessed with, but I'm not going to tell you what it is. I'm just going to give you the name.

[Donald Miller]

The name. And then I like this game.

[Kyle Reed]

I want you to tell me what you think they do.

[Donald Miller]

What do you think the chances of me knowing what it is are?

[Kyle Reed]

About 7.4%.

[Donald Miller]

So it's bad?

[Kyle Reed]

It may be. Well, yeah. The product is called Snipt.

[Donald Miller]

Snipt is the product?

[Kyle Reed]

Yes. S, N, I, P, D, snpd Snipped. No apostrophe.

[Donald Miller]

It is a. I'm guessing now. Yes, it is a home circumcision kit.

[Kyle Reed]

Close. Close. There probably is a company out there named that, but that's not the product I'm obsessed with. Yeah. Right. Now, Snipt is a podcasting app that uses AI to gather information of things you've listened to.

[Donald Miller]

I mean, I see the loose connection. It's a very loose connection. But there would be a stronger connection with snipped and home circumcision than there.

[Kyle Reed]

Would be whatever the podcast app so I'm obsessed with this podcast app.

[Donald Miller]

I would call that Knowledge Gather or Gather.

[Kyle Reed]

Gather. Gather. Gather's a good name.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. Gather.

[Kyle Reed]

Gathered.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. It gathers information.

[Kyle Reed]

That's a good name.

[Donald Miller]

Or curator.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Donald Miller]

Right?

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. So their tagline is remember everything you learn from podcast.

[Donald Miller]

If they were like, hey, we can do clip downs of your podcast after you're done recording and put it on social media. Snipped is kind of interesting.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, it could work.

[Donald Miller]

But snipped is a very strong cut, you know, makes me think of cutting.

[Kyle Reed]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

I'm not saying it's. Now that you've educated me about it, I'm like, okay. But the point is whenever you're coming up with the name of a product, you don't want to have to say what it is. Is.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

Because you're not around. You're not around every customer who's hearing about you to explain it. So if you're not around, then they're hearing something and they don't know what it is.

[Kyle Reed]

Which I think the tagline is good and does a decent job. It's remember everything you learned from podcast.

[Donald Miller]

Snipped. Remember everything you learned from podcast. Yeah, it's better. It's getting there. Remember everything you learned from podcasts. I still don't understand that you're summarizing. That's what they're doing, right? They're summarizing an episode.

[Kyle Reed]

So the way the utility works is that it, it uses AI to analyze the podcast and then as you're listening to it, you can click this, the snipped button, and it will remember what you click.

[Donald Miller]

Or the curate button.

[Kyle Reed]

The curate button or the gathered button.

[Donald Miller]

Gather. I mean so good.

[Kyle Reed]

It is good there. You clip that and then it will remember what you hit and then it will give you a printout. Here's some other things. It will then grab quotes from the actual moment, put those into like a little document for you and you can go back and reference those and it will send you an email of all the cool tool the snips.

[Donald Miller]

How does it know what you've. Is it like listening with you?

[Kyle Reed]

Yes. So the other.

[Donald Miller]

Turn it on while you're listening to a podcast.

[Kyle Reed]

Yes. You have to you it's an actual podcast app, so you have to use it. It's an app.

[Donald Miller]

You can tell the podcasts are on the app.

[Kyle Reed]

Correct. They're all in the app.

[Donald Miller]

So listen well. Okay. There's a couple, couple issues that one, they're gonna be disrupted.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. Yes. Agree.

[Donald Miller]

Like as soon as Spotify does that.

[Kyle Reed]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

That's, you know. So make your money while you can.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. I wonder if my real estate bought.

[Donald Miller]

And then you don't have real estate.

[Kyle Reed]

Well, I think what's cool about it, too, is it actually uses community learning as well. So people. So people who have created. I keep now feel weird saying created snips because you associated snip snip with the two Z's. So what is cool is they use community learning for that as well. So if someone has not listened to that podcast yet, the AI hasn't really learned to analyze it.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

But if someone has, it's broken it all down, and it will give you all these different community highlights of where people have created. Kind of like in. When you're reading a audiobook, not reading an audio. What's the auto. Not auto. Yeah, but like, where you can see where people highlight.

[Donald Miller]

Oh, Kindle.

[Kyle Reed]

Kindle. Thank you. Yeah. You know, where you can see how people highlight different sections, it kind of does the same thing. The other thing I loved about it was I've been using it more for, like, learning, but also for creating more content. So if I hear something someone said, that's clever. I'll save that. And like I said, I'll spit out quotes.

[Donald Miller]

That's pretty cool. I would say if I'm giving Snipt a grade, you're going to be surprised. At this point, I'm giving them a C plus, B minus. But I hate it because something has happened here in you and I's conversation. I got the curse of knowledge. The curse of knowledge is a Lee LeFever term. LeFever wrote a book called the Art of Explanation, and he says most people are so close to their products and services, their ideas, they project that knowledge on the person they're talking to. And he uses a really fascinating analogy. You're gonna love this. He did, like, one person on one side of the table has a song in their mind. The other person on the other side of the table, they're gonna try to get this person to guess the song, but all they can do is tap the table.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

Right. Okay, so I'm gonna do it right now to you.

[Kyle Reed]

Okay.

[Donald Miller]

You see if you can do it.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

What was it?

[Kyle Reed]

No idea. I don't even know if it's on beat. I have no idea.

[Donald Miller]

So what he's illustrating there is. That's how you sound.

[Kyle Reed]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

So listen, love, love me do.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

You know I love you. A lot easier. Right.

[Kyle Reed]

And in your. As the tapper, it's obvious to you.

[Donald Miller]

Right, because I'm going snipped, get bits of a podcast, you know, summarized. And you're hearing.

[Kyle Reed]

And I'm.

[Donald Miller]

I'm hearing home circumcision.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. You're making fun of it. I'm like, this is awesome. Yeah, no, it makes sense.

[Donald Miller]

So he calls. He calls that curse of knowledge.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

And everybody listening to this, including me, has the curse of knowledge. I've got the curse of knowledge around storybrand, and so I find myself doing it all the time. For our first tagline for storybrand, AI was say it clearly. And when I said that to Wes Gay, who's a good friend and one of our storybrand coaches, he said, what's that?

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, I remember that. I was so mad at him when he said that because I was like, I thought he had it, man.

[Donald Miller]

Because he was right. You know, there's just an assumption that I know what, that you know what I'm talking about. And it's just impossible for me to go and go, how are you not hearing this, dude? How are you not hearing it? It's like, well, it's in your head. All I'm hearing is like the beat. And that's what we're all up against. But I still get snipped. Like it's clip downs. It's something cut short. But again, I probably. That's the other problem is you immediately get the curse of knowledge whenever somebody explains it. And now you can't go back. You can't go back to where you didn't know that. That's why I used to prepare for my strategy sessions. Like when I went in to help somebody with a story brand messaging campaign, I would prepare. I would like go through their website, talk with us. And what I found was the deliverable that I delivered at the end of the day was worse. That I basically don't want. I don't want to know anything about your brand. Like when I walk into the room with your leaders, I don't want to know anything about it because I want you to explain it. And right there in real time, I want you to say, I want to say, oh, so is this for the uncircumcised community? You're going to like cut yourself and just come with a first aid kit and they all get mad at me, but they're able to see in real time exactly what potential customers, how potential customers are interacting with their brand?

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. Because they have a curse of knowledge. You then by prepping, you create your own.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, created my curse of knowledge. And now I'm in there with them.

[Kyle Reed]

That's interesting. Yeah. What would be a thing. I think this is super applicable to any business owner. What would be some ways to play the tapping game with some with their customers?

[Donald Miller]

Say what it is. Sing out loud. Yeah, right. Say, you know, you can say snipped the podcast summarizer, you know, or summarize a podcast fast.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

You know, just the bare information is still inside knowledge. Just the bare information about what? About, like, medical stuff, about health devices, about what you know about what news is it A news summary. Right. And so you gotta be able to. You gotta be able to stand outside your brand and look at your messaging and understand you have to suspend the knowledge that you have and understand where people are gonna be confused. I didn't realize this when I wrote however many books I've written. I think I've written 15 books. When you're writing a book, you have to always do that the whole time you're writing. You have to sit down and understand it, what you're saying from the reader's perspective.

[Kyle Reed]

And.

[Donald Miller]

And it gets even harder because I think blue like jazz, I think I edited. I think I kept count. I don't do that anymore, but I think I edited it 54 times. Well, it gets even harder the 52nd time you're editing the book. You still have to read it from the perspective of the reader. And that practice doing that prepared me to create clear messaging. People are like, how do you come up with those messages? I come up. I come up with those messages because I'm listening to it from a completely ignorant perspective. My wife says you're very good at listening to things from an ignorant perspective. But that's what you want to do in your brain. You want to understand how people are, how this is coming off, and why this should be appealing. I see it. I mean, I saw it twice today. Some friends on Instagram were promoting things that. I don't want to say it because I love them and they're friends, so I'm not gonna throw them under the bus, but they were promoting things. I'm just like, you're talking about this with one inside language and two, from your perspective. Right. Something is bothering you, but it's not bothering your customer. You need to talk about the thing that's bothering your customer. Right. And so that's the, you know, what angle is it coming from that your customer would be interested in this? And that's how the curse of knowledge is the enemy of us all.

[Bobby Richards]

If you don't communicate clearly all your Emails, your website, social media posts, everything you're communicating will be ignored. Storybrand AI is like the world's best communication expert writing it for you. Imagine having the world's best communicator writing your tagline. Just type in the name of your company, answer a few prompts and voila. Hey, that's a good one. Use it to write your social media posts, website, wireframe emails, lead generating PDF, product or service descriptions, anything you need for your business. What would happen to your revenue if every word that left your business was crystal clear and worth paying attention to? StoryBrand AI is your competitive advantage. So you'll know, you'll say it clearly. Try it right now and let us write your custom tagline for free at storybrand AI. And now back to the show.

[Kyle Reed]

I've seen you do this too. When you are running through tagline exercises with people. It reminds me of. Do you remember the health bar where they talked about it needs to be refrigerated?

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, that brand. She sort of presented the idea that the bar had to be refrigerated as kind of a negative and I immediately saw it as a positive, mainly because it's a differentiator.

[Kyle Reed]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

And so what I recommended that she put perhaps as a tagline as a controlling idea, but regardless, as packaging copy, for sure, real food needs to be refrigerated. So you actually put it on the bar and what you're saying is every other bar that you buy is not real.

[Kyle Reed]

Yep.

[Donald Miller]

Right.

[Kyle Reed]

Yep. And as you've talked about with taglines or controlling ideas, it opens that story loop of just now, you go, wait a minute, I have things that are not real.

[Donald Miller]

We've all eaten them. After like six years, you're pulling something out of your pantry.

[Kyle Reed]

But back to, back to what you're saying though is that if you had that curse of knowledge walking in with her, you would not have heard it would just been probably skipped over to some degree.

[Donald Miller]

Well, I think she had convinced herself it was a negative.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

And as soon as I heard it, I just went, that's it, that's it, that's it, that's it.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, yeah.

[Donald Miller]

There was a lady. There's a lady in my mastermind, Gina. She's got sort of an aesthetic brand, helps you. She's actually sent me a bunch of skin creams that apparently I try not to be insulted by that. She's wonderful, actually. I went to her and said, what do I do about this? And she sent me this wonderful package of stuff. But I love the honesty in the controlling idea that she came up with. And it is look five years younger and age more slowly. It's honest. You know, it's not look young again. And it's not stay young looking forever. Look five years younger and age more slowly. And, you know, I think that's. That's kind of what you're looking for. Now, what's the. Is there any curse of knowledge in that? I realize I'm pretty close to Gina's brand and have used it, but I can't smell any curse of knowledge in that. You know, again, it's very, very hard to see it when you're close to it. But, you know, look five years younger and age more slowly. That could be a vitamin. You could misunderstand it, or as a treatment of some sort. But, you know, if it's on the packaging of a skin care, you don't have to educate people about what it is because they're sitting there looking at a box of skincare or if they're on the website and they already know this is skin care of some sort. You know, another thing I saw yesterday, I was going through our. Is your family like mine, where you have, like, six 95% empty jars of peanut butter?

[Kyle Reed]

Yes. Yes.

[Donald Miller]

Nobody's throwing them away.

[Kyle Reed]

And, like, you use all of them to try to get one healthy. That's exactly it. We get really mad that you don't have one.

[Donald Miller]

That's right.

[Kyle Reed]

Oh, that just me. Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

We've got three or four brands in there. And one of them just says on the top, big letters on the top of the jar, it says simply stir and serve. And I thought, that's brilliant. Even though of course you're gonna. You know, if it's a natural peanut butter, it's got the oil flowing.

[Kyle Reed]

I was gonna say. Is that almond butter? Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

That's what makes you think of it.

[Donald Miller]

The problem is you open a jar like that and it makes. First of all, it's weird.

[Kyle Reed]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

It doesn't feel like the creamy peanut butter that they're using palm oil. That's unhealthy. It doesn't go on as smooth. It's not as good over a Hershey's chocolate bar, which sometimes I'll do the whole thing. I want a little protein on top of my Hershey's bar. Too much information here, probably for balances it out. Yeah. But it made it offset that messaging. Offset the. Oh, come on. When you open the jar, especially if that jar is really full, because now you're trying not to spill the oil out of the top of the jar, it's a negative experience. So when it says simply stir and serve, it's a way of saying, this isn't that hard. Just stir it and serve it. And it frames the experience as less negative.

[Kyle Reed]

Yes. And it gets ahead of the negative connotation that could come from the experience by just simply adding that get ahead of it. That's a great point, Kyle.

[Donald Miller]

Get ahead of any negative experience.

[Kyle Reed]

We just did an episode that came out not too long ago about Magic Spoon, and again, they did the same thing, healthy cereal that you go, ew. And they open it up that tastes very good.

[Donald Miller]

That tastes better than you can believe.

[Kyle Reed]

Or something like that. And I think that that's such a good key point there. One of the things that floating around in my head is that if I'm a business owner listening to this, I love that tap test. Just to kind of get that curse of knowledge. Is there a couple things that you would recommend people do for their brand?

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, just one thing. You need some central messaging. It doesn't have to be your tagline, doesn't have to be your controlling idea, but you need some central messag saying exactly what it is. Right. You and I both know, and we've talked about this on the podcast before, there's a billboard down the street that says, sitting the fence. Hire a cowboy. It's a picture of a cowboy sitting the fence. Question mark. Hire a cowboy. Right. And I figured out pretty quickly, first of all, I figured out that's a bad billboard, which made me want to study it, which is the only reason I ever understood what they did. They build fences. And apparently this guy's got some sort of cowboy shtick going on, building fences. If he would have said, hire a cowboy to build your fence, he would be making more money. So what I mean by that is say what you do. Because think how bad the curse of knowledge is when you're actually assuming somebody knows what the product is and you never told them. This, by the way, is what happens when small businesses act like big brands. Because everybody knows what Coca Cola is. Everybody knows what Tylenol does. You don't have to explain it.

[Kyle Reed]

It.

[Donald Miller]

Everybody knows. Nobody knows who you are. So you don't get the. You don't get the, you know, the benefit of everybody having experienced your product, tasted your product, used your product, you don't get that. And so until you become a national household name and everybody understands, you need to say it clearly. Right? And, you know, so I need to say storybrand, the seven part framework that helps you clarify your message. Right. Or even quicker, clarify your message with my seven part framework. So now I get clarify your message up front so that people aren't going. A framework on longevity. A framework on, you know, you know, personal hygiene. A framework. Oh, messaging. You got to say it before the squirrel brain runs off and thinks it's something else. And just watch the power of that. Just watch the power of it. And how when you say it clearly, what you're doing is you're giving people the opportunity to understand whether or not they need it. Right. And by the way, hire a cowboy to build your fence. What a great differentiator. Cowboys are blue collar. There's kind of an honor and integrity.

[Kyle Reed]

Ethos that it's gonna be done right.

[Donald Miller]

It's gonna be done right. It's probably gonna be done on time. It's all associated with cowboys. So that actually I would say is very, very strong. But sitting the fence about what? You know about what. And then why would I hire a cowboy if I haven't decided yet about something? It's just, it goes in one ear and out the other.

[Kyle Reed]

Well, it even applies that you're looking to buy a fence. Yeah. So are you sitting like it and you're not. But it's. You want to be remembered that when you need a fence, hire the cowboy.

[Donald Miller]

What was that? Cowboy. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Yeah, that's right.

[Kyle Reed]

Versus I don't need a fence. Right.

[Donald Miller]

Now, the other thing that I like about hire a cowboy to build your fence is it tells you what to do.

[Kyle Reed]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

Hire a cowboy to do what? To build your fence.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. It's so good.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. So if I have a restaurant and I have order our cheeseburger, it's the best in town. How many calories am I. Speaking of calories, how many calories am I having to burn to try to figure out what you're selling?

[Kyle Reed]

Not much.

[Donald Miller]

No.

[Kyle Reed]

Because you're selling a cheeseburger that's the best in town.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. But let's say I said, celebrate the big moment at Acme, you know, grill. Well, okay, now you're kind of saying, like, if you have a big birthday party, this is a great place to do it. But which messaging is gonna do better?

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. Cheeseburger.

[Donald Miller]

Order the best cheeseburger in town at Acme Grill or celebrate the big moment at Acme Grill.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

You know, I would say the cheeseburger, it's gonna. I would say not only it's 10 to 1.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. And the amount of work you'd have to do to figure out what does it mean to celebrate. There is too much to go. I'll just go to what I know now.

[Donald Miller]

If I said have your kid's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, not having to think everybody knows what Chuck E. Cheese is, so I don't have to educate them. And have your kids birthday party tells me literally what to do.

[Kyle Reed]

That's right. That's good.

[Donald Miller]

And what you're doing again, and we've said this before, you're thinking for people rather than asking them to think.

[Kyle Reed]

That's good. That's a good clarity right there.

[Donald Miller]

Words are thoughts. And when you put words in somebody's brain, your thoughts thinking for them. And if you're thinking, let me give you a fake tagline because place matters. What is it.

[Kyle Reed]

A residential apartment complex?

[Donald Miller]

No, it's an interior designer.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

Do you know what I'm saying?

[Kyle Reed]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

And so it's like what you would want to say is something like interior design you will love, or let's be provocative, interior design that will make your friends jealous.

[Kyle Reed]

Ah, there it is.

[Donald Miller]

There it is.

[Kyle Reed]

That's right.

[Donald Miller]

Now, there's two things we just did with that interior design that will make your friends jealous. One is interior design is what it is that will make your friends jealous. Inside of a tribe, there's always comparison, and people are always trying to be better than the others. And it's sort of like a playful way of saying, I'm going to make you better than these people. And that's kind of fun. Now it's a lot better than place matters.

[Kyle Reed]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

You see what I'm saying?

[Kyle Reed]

100%. So you said so think for the customer so you don't make them think. How'd you say that again? You said it. Really?

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. Well, think for the customer. Don't ask them to think.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, that's it.

[Donald Miller]

Don't ask them to put the thoughts you want them to think.

[Kyle Reed]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

In order and then use words to put them in their head.

[Kyle Reed]

And one of the things.

[Donald Miller]

Take your family to a baseball game.

[Kyle Reed]

Easy.

[Bobby Richards]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

I mean, I'm telling you what to do. Instead of, like, baseball, America's favorite family sport. Well, I didn't know baseball was America's favorite family sport. That's interesting. Thanks for putting that mind that thought in my head. At no point am I thinking about buying a ticket for my family.

[Kyle Reed]

Take is the big word there. Action.

[Donald Miller]

Take your family to a baseball game.

[Kyle Reed]

Well, it's interesting, too. We go back to the. The podcast app snipped the reason why snipped they didn't say, check out, snipped. You'll love it. The way I found out about it was someone described it as, this is a tool that helps you. Because I've listened to a lot of podcasts, I found myself forgetting a lot of things I heard. So I actually went out as far as to buy a voice recorder to record segments so I would remember them. Problem was, I didn't then go listen to them again. But the way they got me was when I heard someone describe the app, saying, hey, have you ever wanted to remember what you're listening to? We'll do that for you.

[Donald Miller]

Notice that ad, even if it described a problem or a desire that people had, and then it associated the product.

[Kyle Reed]

With the solution to that, and you said that kind of earlier, it's better to kind of have your product describe what it is, what it does.

[Donald Miller]

It's better.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

You don't have to do it, but you're going to succeed a lot more quickly if you do.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. A couple of things I think for listeners here is, is do that curse of knowledge. How much curse of knowledge do you have? How much curse of knowledge does your customers have? Just across the board, how much curse of knowledge? Pay attention to that. Try the tap.

[Donald Miller]

I think Leela Fever even does it. On a scale of 1 to 10, where he talks about, you know, your cursive, you know, for place matters. The curse of knowledge, like an eight.

[Kyle Reed]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

It's like you're not even close.

[Kyle Reed]

And, man, small businesses probably break that rule. Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

Because they're really good at making products, really good at. At caring for customers. They didn't go to school for messaging.

[Kyle Reed]

And we love small businesses here, and we don't want them to waste money on marketing and messaging because they're not being clear.

[Donald Miller]

That's right. So the controlling idea is say it clearly.

[Kyle Reed]

And you can say it clearly at StoryBrand AI. Save you a lot of money there.

[Donald Miller]

I think we changed it to clarify your message so customers engage.

[Kyle Reed]

We did, yes.

[Donald Miller]

All right, everybody. Well, hopefully this has helped you. And if anything else, just go through your messaging and say, hey, where are we confusing people? Where are we thinking people understand exactly what we're talking about when we. When they don't. And the bottom line, Kyle, that costs you money. That costs you a lot of money. And the difference between, you know, you making twice as much money might be just the fact that you need to clarify your message so customers engage. And as always, you can do that at StoryBrand AI. We'll give you free seven free talking points that you can use to talk about your brand. We're going to answer some questions about your brand, what your customer's problems are. You're gonna answer some. We're gonna ask you to describe the product a little bit. Then we're gonna give you seven talking points and a tagline and a controlling idea, which is a lot for free.

[Kyle Reed]

That's right.

[Donald Miller]

All right, storybrand AI go there now sitting the fence about your message. Go to storybrand AI. Like a cowboy.

[Kyle Reed]

Like a cowboy as good cowboys do.

[Bobby Richards]

Thanks for listening to the why that Worked podcast presented by StoryBrand AI. If you like the show, follow wherever you get your podcasts. And if you're Enjoying this on YouTube, hit that subscribe button and leave a comment letting us know what you think and what you want the guys to talk about in a future episode. Curious about how StoryBrand AI can help you create clear, effective messaging? Well, you can try it out right now and create a free customized tagline for your business. Just go to storybrand AI. Thanks for listening and we'll see. See you next time.

[Donald Miller]

Sam.