If They Can't Repeat It, They Didn't Get It

Did you know you can judge the success of your communication with one question?

Can people repeat anything they heard - word for word?

If they can, good for you, because it means they're more likely to remember it, act on it, maybe even tell other people about it and become a brand ambassador for it.

If not, what you just said is out-of-sight, out-of-mind.

And that's not good, because it means people won't be following up on your report, request or recommendation - and all the time, energy and resources spent shaping it were for naught because it won't have the impact you sought.

So, what can we do to make our communication more memorable and actionable?

Follow the example of author Neil Gaiman.

Neil was asked to give the commencement address for Pennsylvania's The University of the Arts. In it, he spoke honestly about the ups and downs of his career.

He described the initial thrill of success, and then how he started getting upset about the logistics of his job, worrying about book delays, jealous of peers, dissatisfied with sales.

Fellow author Stephen King reached out to compliment him on his book The Sandman, saying, "This is really great. You should enjoy it."

Gaiman admitted, "I didn't enjoy it. There wasn't a moment for the next fourteen years I wasn't writing something in my head or wondering about it. And I didn't stop and look around and go, this is really fun. There were parts of the ride I missed, because I was too worried about things going wrong."

Then one day he asked himself, “What can I control?" He realized he couldn’t control the vicissitudes of life and work, all he could do was "MAKE GOOD ART."

Someone in the audience filmed his talk and posted it YouTube. It went viral within hours and now has more than 1 million views.

However, the story doesn't stop there. Make Good Art was turned into a book that's become a favorite graduation gift. Gaiman is now a popular social media influencer and paid speaker because of his proven power to deliver inspiring insights. The sales of his books soared.

All because he distilled the point of that twenty minute talk into a pithy one-liner.

Think about it. Tens of thousands of commencement addresses are given every year. Most of them go in one ear - out the other. They don't stick, and they certainly don't catapult the career of the speaker or scale their name/brand recognition worldwide.

The key to the expansive success of Gaiman's talk was that he distilled his epiphany into a universally relevant, three-word, tip-of-the-iceberg rally cry.

What's an important communication you've got coming up? What do you want people to be motivated to DO at the end of it? Turn that into an actionable rally cry by making it:

1. Universally relevant. You don't have to be a college student to identify with Gaiman's insight. Almost everyone has ups and downs in their career. Almost everyone can benefit from his wise advice to focus on what we can control instead of what we can't. How can you give your message legs by making it metaphorical so everyone relates to it?
2. Three words. What change do you want people to make - what action do you want them to take - at the end of your communication? Sum up that call to action in a few words. As Strunk and White pointed out in their classic Elements of Style, "Vigorous writing is concise." So is vigorous speaking. Ask yourself what you want people to start, stop or do differently, and then trim that into a single sentence where, as Strunk and White advised, "Every word tells."
3. Tip-of-the-iceberg. There's a lot going on beneath the surface of Make Good Art, isn't there? We haven't heard that particular phrase before which makes us want to explore it. Test your one-liner on a few friends. Does it cause them to roll their eyes (platitude) or raise their eyebrows (provocative)? Your goal is create a hook, line and thinker that's evocative, defined as "bringing strong images, memories or feelings to mind."

Do you have an example of someone who distilled the essence of their message into a powerful, provocative phrase-that-pays?

What did they say? Why did it resonate with you? What did it motivate you to do?

Coin your version of "Just do it," "Lean in," or "You can't eat just one," and you too can create brand ambassadors who take you viral because you're repeatable and retweetable.