#33: Snipd—What Your Brand Name is Really Saying to Customers (RE-RELEASE)

Summary

Why That Worked – Presented by StoryBrand.ai

Episode #33: Snipd—What Your Brand Name is Really Saying to Customers (RE-RELEASE)
Date: August 18, 2025
Hosts: Donald Miller & Kyle Reed

---

Episode Overview

This episode dives into the power—and potential pitfalls—of brand names and messaging through the lens of the app “Snipd,” a podcast summarization app. Donald Miller and Kyle Reed unpack what your brand name communicates (intentionally or not), how the “curse of knowledge” sabotages clear messaging, and actionable ways to craft taglines and messaging that truly resonate with customers. The episode is engaging, laughter-filled, and packed with both examples and immediately applicable advice for anyone running a business or responsible for communications.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Brand Name Guessing Game: Snipd

• [00:25] Donald introduces “Snipd” to Kyle without context, asking him to guess the product from the name.
• Kyle, thrown by the strong “cutting” connotation, jokes:

  “It is a home circumcision kit.” (Kyle Reed, [00:52])

• Donald reveals Snipd is actually an AI-driven podcast app for capturing and summarizing audio highlights.

2. The Power and Risk of Naming

• The hosts debate whether “Snipd” is a clear and effective name for the product’s purpose.
• Alternative names get tossed around:

  “I would call that Knowledge Gather or Gather.” (Kyle Reed, [01:31]) “Curator” and “Gathered” are also mentioned as more aligned with learning and collecting information.

• Both agree: Names with strong, specific imagery (like “snipped”) can cause misunderstandings if not explicit about the product.

3. Explaining Features & Functionality

• [02:39] Donald breaks down how Snipd works:
  • AI listens and lets users “snip” (save) segments while listening.
  • Later, users receive a printable/email summary of saved highlights and quotes.
  • Community learning: Highlights get aggregated—like Kindle’s popular highlights feature.

4. The Curse of Knowledge

• The “curse of knowledge” is discussed at length—where insiders assume customers know as much as they do, leading to unclear messaging.
• Kyle references Lee LeFever’s “tapping game” as a metaphor: A person taps out a song; it’s clear to the tapper but often incomprehensible to the listener.

  “That’s how you sound… you’re the tapper. It’s obvious to you, right?” (Kyle Reed, [05:38])

• Donald emphasizes preparing brand messaging as though the potential customer knows nothing.

  “I don’t want to know anything about your brand… I want to say, ‘Oh, so is this for the uncircumcised community?’” (Donald Miller, [07:01])

5. Actionable Messaging Strategies

• Central Rule: Always state what your product is and does—don’t make customers guess.
• Practical test:

  “Say what it is. Sing out loud. Yeah, right. Say, you know, you could say Snipd, the podcast summarizer, you know, or summarize a podcast fast.” (Kyle Reed, [08:02])

• Donald urges using messaging that would be clear to the “ignorant” or uninformed perspective.

  “Listen to it from a completely ignorant perspective.” (Donald Miller, [09:31])

6. Real-World Examples

• [11:23] Tagline for a refrigerated health bar:

  “Real food needs to be refrigerated.”
  Flipping a perceived negative (must be refrigerated) into a differentiator.

• [12:26] Honest skincare messaging:

  “Look five years younger and age more slowly.” (Donald Miller recounting a friend’s product)

• [14:05] Peanut butter jar messaging:

  “Simply stir and serve.”
  Reframes a negative experience (oil separation) as simple and positive.

7. “Think For Your Customer”—Direct Messaging

• Use direct calls to action:

  “Order the best cheeseburger in town at Acme Grill… or celebrate the big moment at Acme Grill?” (Kyle Reed, [19:13]) “Take your family to a baseball game.” versus “Baseball, America’s favorite family sport.” ([21:39])

• Strong, explicit instructions outperform vague, clever, or indirect taglines.

8. Applying Insight to Your Brand

• Don’t assume your audience “gets it”—always say what you do.
• Don’t fall into “big brand” habits (e.g., vague Coca Cola slogans); small businesses must be crystal clear.

  “Nobody knows who you are. So… you need to say it clearly.” (Kyle Reed, [17:29])

• Donald emphasizes:

  “When you say it clearly, you’re giving people the opportunity to understand whether or not they need it.” (Donald Miller, [18:09])

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On brand confusion:

  “I’m hearing home circumcision. Yeah. You’re making fun of it. I’m like, this is awesome.” (Donald Miller, [05:59])

• On not prepping for strategy sessions:

  “The deliverable that I delivered at the end was worse… I don’t want to know anything about your brand.” (Donald Miller, [07:01])

• On direct messaging:

  “Think for the customer, don’t ask them to think.” (Kyle Reed, [21:29])

• On the power of being explicit:

  “Hire a cowboy to build your fence—what a great differentiator.” (Kyle Reed, [18:14])

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:25] – Snipd guessing game; first impressions on brand naming.
• [02:39] – Snipd’s features, community highlights, and workflow.
• [05:13] – The “tapping game” and the curse of knowledge explained.
• [08:02] – How to avoid the curse of knowledge: central messaging and clarity.
• [11:23] – Examples of flipping negatives into brand strengths (food, skincare).
• [17:29] – Why small businesses must avoid “big brand” vague messaging.
• [19:13] – The importance of being explicit in calls to action.
• [21:29] – “Think for your customer”—formula for powerful messaging.

---

Key Takeaways for Listeners

• Always explain what your product does—your brand name and tagline should minimize ambiguity.
• Avoid the curse of knowledge—test your messaging with “naive” listeners before going public.
• Use direct, customer-focused language—don’t expect the audience to “figure it out.”
• Flip perceived product negatives into brand strengths through messaging.
• Test clarity: Would someone outside your company (or industry) understand instantly?

---

Conclusion

Donald Miller and Kyle Reed offer a masterclass on making your brand communications clear, memorable, and effective—using both mistakes and successes as teaching tools. The episode is not just about the merits of the “Snipd” name but a broader lesson: When in doubt, spell it out. Your revenue—and customers—will thank you.

---

Quote to remember:

“Think for the customer, don’t ask them to think.”
—Kyle Reed ([21:29])

Transcript

[Donald Miller]

Foreign.

[Podcast Narrator]

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.

[Donald Miller]

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.

[Kyle Reed]

Name and then I like this game.

[Donald Miller]

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

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

About 7.4%.

[Kyle Reed]

So it's bad?

[Donald Miller]

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

[Kyle Reed]

Snipped is the product, yes.

[Donald Miller]

S, N, I, P, D. Snipda. Snip. No apostrophe.

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

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

[Kyle Reed]

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.

[Donald Miller]

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

[Kyle Reed]

I would call that Knowledge Gather or Gather.

[Donald Miller]

Gather. Gather. Gathers. A good name. Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

Gathered.

[Donald Miller]

Gathered.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. It gathers information.

[Donald Miller]

That's a good name.

[Kyle Reed]

Or curator.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

Right?

[Donald Miller]

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

[Kyle Reed]

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.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, it could work.

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

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.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

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.

[Donald Miller]

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

[Kyle Reed]

Remember everything you learned from podcasts. Yeah, I mean, 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.

[Donald Miller]

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

[Kyle Reed]

Or the curate button.

[Donald Miller]

The curate button or the gathered button.

[Kyle Reed]

I mean, so good it is there.

[Donald Miller]

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.

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

You have to turn it on while you're listening to a podcast.

[Donald Miller]

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

[Kyle Reed]

The podcasts are on the app.

[Donald Miller]

Correct. They're all on the app.

[Kyle Reed]

So listen well. Okay. There's a couple. Couple issues that. One, they're going to be disrupted.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. Yes. Agree.

[Kyle Reed]

Like as soon as Spotify does that.

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, I hope. I wonder if they bought and then.

[Kyle Reed]

You don't have real estate.

[Donald Miller]

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 wouldn't be snipped. 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.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

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 an audiobook. Not reading an audiobook. What's the auto? Not auto. Yeah, but like where you can see where people highlight.

[Kyle Reed]

Oh, Kindle.

[Donald Miller]

Kindle. Thank you.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, yeah.

[Donald Miller]

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 for you.

[Kyle Reed]

That's pretty cool. I would say if I'm giving snipped a grade, you're going to be surprised. At this point, I'm giving them a C, B. 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. Lee 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 going to 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.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

Right. Okay, so I'm gonna do it right now to you. Okay. You see if you can do it.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

What was it?

[Donald Miller]

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

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

So listen, love, love me do. Yeah, you know, I love you. Lot easier. Right.

[Donald Miller]

And you're the tapper. It's obvious to you, right?

[Kyle Reed]

Because I'm going snipped, get bits of a podcast, you know, summarized, and you're hearing.

[Donald Miller]

And I'm.

[Kyle Reed]

I'm hearing home circumcision.

[Donald Miller]

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

[Kyle Reed]

So he calls. He calls that curse of knowledge. 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 it?

[Donald Miller]

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

[Kyle Reed]

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 to go to 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.

[Donald Miller]

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

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

It's interesting. Yeah. What would be a thing that 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?

[Kyle Reed]

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.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

You know, you could, you know, you know just the bare of 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're, you gotta be able to, you got to 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 going to 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.

[Donald Miller]

And.

[Kyle Reed]

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 because people are like, how do you come up with those messages? 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. So I'm not gonna throw them under the bus, but they were promoting things. And 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.

[Podcast Narrator]

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.

[Kyle Reed]

And voila.

[Podcast Narrator]

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.

[Donald Miller]

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.

[Kyle Reed]

It needs to be Refrigerated? 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.

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

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.

[Donald Miller]

Yep.

[Kyle Reed]

Right.

[Donald Miller]

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.

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

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.

[Kyle Reed]

Well, she had convinced herself it was a negative.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

There was a lady. There's a lady in my mastermind, Gina. She's got sort of an aesthetic brand. 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. It's not look young again and it's not stay young looking forever. Look five years younger and age more slowly. And I think that's kind of what you're looking for. Now, 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. 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?

[Donald Miller]

Yes. Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

Nobody's throwing them away.

[Donald Miller]

And, like, you use all of them to try to get one healthy.

[Kyle Reed]

That's exactly it.

[Donald Miller]

We get really mad that you don't have one.

[Kyle Reed]

That's right.

[Donald Miller]

Oh, that Just me. Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

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.

[Donald Miller]

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

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

That's what makes you think of it.

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

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.

[Donald Miller]

Yes. And it gets ahead of the negative connotation that could come from the experience by just simply adding that.

[Kyle Reed]

Get ahead of it. That's a great point, Kyle. Get ahead of any negative experience.

[Donald Miller]

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.

[Kyle Reed]

That tastes better than you can believe.

[Donald Miller]

Or something like that. That's it. Yeah. 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?

[Kyle Reed]

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 mess 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. Everybody knows. Nobody knows who you are. So you don't get 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. Yeah, right. And by the way, hire a cowboy to build your friends. What a great differentiator. Cowboys are blue collar. There's, there's a kind of an honor and integrity, you know, ethos that done right.

[Donald Miller]

It's going to be done right.

[Kyle Reed]

It's going to be done right. It's probably going to be done on time.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

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.

[Donald Miller]

Well, it even applies that you're looking to buy a fence.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

So are you sitting like. And you're not. But it's. You want to be remembered that when you need a fence, hire the cowboy.

[Kyle Reed]

What was that? Cowboy. That's right. Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, that's right. Versus I don't need a fence right. Now.

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. It's so good.

[Kyle Reed]

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?

[Donald Miller]

Not much.

[Kyle Reed]

No.

[Donald Miller]

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

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. Let's say I should 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?

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. Cheeseburger.

[Kyle Reed]

Order the best cheeseburger in town at Acme Grill or celebrate the big moment at Acme Grill. You know, I would say the cheeseburger, it's gonna. I would say not only it's gonna. It's 10 to 1.

[Donald Miller]

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.

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

That's right. That's good.

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

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

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

A residential apartment complex?

[Kyle Reed]

No, it's an interior designer.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

Do you know what I'm saying?

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

And so it's like what you would want to say is something like interior design you will love.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

Or let's be provocative. Interior design that will make your friends jealous.

[Donald Miller]

Ah, there it is.

[Kyle Reed]

There it is.

[Donald Miller]

That's right.

[Kyle Reed]

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.

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

You see what I'm saying?

[Donald Miller]

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?

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, that's it.

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

And one of the things.

[Kyle Reed]

Take your family to a baseball game.

[Donald Miller]

Easy.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. 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 thought in my head. At no point am I thinking about buying a ticket for my family.

[Donald Miller]

Take is the big word there. Action.

[Kyle Reed]

Take your family to a baseball game.

[Donald Miller]

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 the 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.

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

And you said that kind of earlier. It's better to kind of have your product describe what it is, what it does.

[Kyle Reed]

It's better.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

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.

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

It's like you're not even close.

[Donald Miller]

And, man, small businesses probably break that rule.

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

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.

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

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

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

We did, yes.

[Kyle Reed]

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 gonna answer some questions about your brand, what your customer's problems are. You're going to answer some. Some. We're going to ask you to describe the product a little bit. Then we're going to give you seven talking points and a tagline and a controlling idea, which is a lot for free.

[Donald Miller]

That's right.

[Kyle Reed]

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

[Donald Miller]

Like a cowboy. As good cowboys do.

[Podcast Narrator]

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 you next time.