014 Marcia Yudkin on Crafting Sound Bites

Career Tips & Trends with Tom McDonough & Deborah Burkholder

Welcome to Career Tips & Trends.
Internet radio for savvy professionals –
doing work you love, work that matters.

The words we use impact how we are perceived.

How do we quickly make a memorable impression with our words?

We asked Marica Yudkin to help answer that question.

Marcia is the president of Creative Ways and recognized for her ability to find the right words for a message. Today she joins us to talk about creating succinct and memorable sound bites.

Marcia she has over 16 books published, her articles have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, she is a reviewer and judge for various website awards, she been featured in numerous magazines and she holds three Ivy League degrees. You can find out more about her background and accomplishments at her website – yudkin.com.

And for those of you that are interested in creating careers that support a lifestyle, take a look at the choices she’s made in her career to build a life where she has more time to do the things she loves.

Marcia’s newsletter “marketing minute” is one of the few that I read religiously for two reasons, one it’s a quick easy read and two, it has great content.

Though she works primarily with businesses (or maybe because), I think you’ll find her suggestions for creating sound bites useful as you position yourself for opportunities.

We’d love to hear from you in terms of your actionable takeaways from this episode.

Leave a comment or send us an email.

Listen to the full interview by clicking player above.

Here are some exurps from todays interview…

From the show

Sound bites are little morsels; little verbal morsels that make you memorable. I think that’s the challenge in today’s world. You want to not only be perceived as competent, but you also want people to remember you. There’s so many different ways to become memorable. Sound bites enable you to use the language in a way that sticks in people’s mind. They are combinations of words and ideas that make you sound clever, smart, original and somebody who’s worth knowing. It’s actually hard to imagine a context in which that wouldn’t help you get ahead in your career; whatever that was.

Let me give you some examples of sound bites. These are examples taken from sayings that have lasted in the language because they’re catchy, they summarize an interesting idea, and they’re easy to pass along. Think of all the great quotations that we hear again and again like nice guys finish last, God is in the details, education is wasted on the young. The difference between the right word and the almost right word is like the difference between lightning and the lightning bug- That’s from Mark Twain. One of my favorites is the saying on the license plates in New Hampshire- Live Free or Die. That’s a sound bite.

Sound bites are a way of using language to stick in people’s minds.

There are three kinds of sound bites that I thought would be most valuable for your audience. The first kind of sound bite is a slogan, a motto or a tagline…

The second type of sound bite that I want to talk about is what’s called a Moniker. A moniker is an alternate name or a nick name or some kind of title you want to be known by…

The third type of sound bite that I wanted to talk about is the mnemonic. This is where you take initial letters of a series of words and you turn that in to something that is memorable on its own…

We know from advertising that something that really hits home can last for decades. Companies often take their tag lines out of circulation way before they should because they get tired of them and they don’t realize that the public is not yet tired of them…

Another pitfall that I see a lot is a wordy sound bite. Most of the time, your sound bite needs to be 10 words or less and even better at 6 words at less. I counted up the tagline of FedEx; I don’t think they’re using this one anymore but for many years it used to be When You Absolutely, Positively, Need Something Overnight. It’s 7 or 8 words. That’s a rather long tag line. You don’t want to be any longer than that. It sometimes takes help and some editing to go from an idea that has too many words to something that’s shorter and catchier. Get some help if you have captured the right idea but it sounds kind of clunky and there’s too many words.

…if you watch the presidential debates, which are in the future for us at this point, there are usually a couple of sound bites that come out and turn out to be the ones that people remember afterwards. It’s fun to notice them when you hear them or see them and to realize that you were there at the creation…

You have to use words seriously. You have to use words that mean something; that can be depended on by the listener or the viewer. The best example of that is the word guaranteed. Don’t use it unless you’re totally committed to it…

Don’t be afraid to get known for something that’s a little bit different because that’s what’s going to make you all the more memorable. If all of your colleagues are going in direction A, think about creating your sound bite in direction B. It’s going to be somewhat surprising. It’s going to take people aback. They’re going to want to know more and they’re going to remember you more for it. Of course, it has to pass all those other tests we just talked about…

Listen to the full interview by clicking player above.

We’d love to hear from you in terms of your actionable takeaways from this episode. Leave a comment or send us an email.

More About Marcia

Website: http://www.yudkin.com

Email [e-mail]>

The Marketing Minute by Marcia Yudkin

RESOURCES

Marcia’s Books on Amazon.

What do you want?

80% of finding work you love, work that fits you is knowing what you want. If you don’t know or aren’t quite sure – just start with what you think you might want. Take small smart steps and follow your gut. Talk to people who are already doing the work you’re interested in. Connect with them on LinkedIn. Speaking of just starting, Just Start is a great new book we love. See link below.

Career Coaching, Job Search – Branding – Résumé Strategists

Tom & Deborah help creative engaged professionals turn their dream job into a reality.

Contact: Deborah Burkholder – Tom McDonough

Continued Learning

We’ve found these books very helpful and recommend them to our coaching clients.

*You can support the show by using our Amazon affiliate links above. Thanks.

Listen to the full interview by clicking player above.