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

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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.

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. I like this game. I want you to tell me what you think they do. What do you think the chances of me knowing what it is are? 7.4%. Sounds bad. Maybe. Well, yeah. The product is called a snip. Snipt is the product. Yes. S-N-I-P-D. Snipt. Snipt. No apostrophe. It is a... I'm guessing now. Yes. It is a home circumcision kit. Close. Close.

There probably is a company out there named that, but that's not the product I'm obsessed with. Snipped is a podcasting app that uses AI to gather information of things you've listened to. 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 would be Snipped and whatever. The podcast app. So I'm obsessed with this podcast app. I would call that...

knowledge gather. Okay. Or gather. Gather. Gather. Gather's a good name. Yeah, gather. Gathered. Yeah, it gathers information. That's a good name. Or curator. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? Yeah, so their tagline is remember everything you learn from 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. Yeah, it could work. But Snipped is a very strong cut.

It makes me think of cutting. Yes. 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. Yeah.

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. Which I think the tagline is good and does a decent job. It's remember everything you learn from podcasts. Snipped. Remember everything you learned from podcasts. 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. 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. Or the curate button. The curate button or the gathered button. The gather. I mean, it's so good. It is good.

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 a little document for you, and you can go back and reference. And I'll send you an email of all the SNPs. Is it like listening with you? Yes.

You have to turn it on while you're listening to a podcast? Yes. It's an actual podcast app. So you have to use it. It's an app. Oh, so the podcasts are on the app? Correct. They're all on the app. Okay. There's a couple issues that we're going to be disrupting.

Yeah. Yes. Agreed. Like as soon as Spotify does that, that's, you know, so make your money while you can. Yeah. I'm wondering if I'm hoping to get bought and then you don't have real estate. Well, I think what's cool about it too, is it actually uses, um, community learning as well so people so people who have created i keep now feel weird saying created snip Because you snipped with two Zs.

So what is cool is I 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. 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 when you're reading an audio book, not reading an audio book. what's that yeah but like where you can see where people highlight

Oh, Kendall. Kendall, thank you. 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 i'll save that and like i said

spit out quotes. 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 plus, C plus slash 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 Lila Fever term. Lila Fever 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 okay he did um like um 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 going to try to get this person to guess the song, but all they can do is tap the table. Yeah. Right? Okay, so I'm going to do it right now to you. Okay. You'll see if you can do it. Yeah. Gracias por ver el video What was it? No idea. I don't even know if it's on beat. I have no idea. What he's illustrating there is that's how you sound. Yeah. So listen, love, love me too.

Yeah. You know I love you. A lot easier, right? And the tapper, it's obvious. to you right yeah because i'm going yeah snipped get bits of a podcast you know yeah summarize and you're here and i'm i'm here in home circumcision yeah you're making fun of it i'm like this is awesome yeah no it makes sense He calls that the curse of knowledge. And everybody listening to this, including me, Has the curse of knowledge. I've got the curse of knowledge around story brands.

And so I find myself doing it all the time. The other, you know, for our first tagline for storyburn.ai, I would say it clearly. And when I said that to Wes Gay, who's a good friend and one of our storyburn coaches, He said, what's that? Yeah, I remember that. I was so mad at him when he said that. 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 yeah and that's that's what that's what we're all up against but I still give snipped like it's clip downs it's something cut short you know 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.

I used to prepare for my strategy sessions. When I went in to help somebody with a story brand messaging campaign, I would prepare. I would go through their website. What I found was the deliverable that I delivered at the end of the day was worse. that I basically 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 gonna like cut yourself and you just come with a first aid kit and they're all 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. Yeah, because they have a curse of knowledge. You then, by prepping, you create your own curse of knowledge. Yeah, I created my curse of knowledge, and now I'm in there with them. Yeah, it'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 their customers? Say what it is. Sing out loud. Yeah. Right? You can say snipped. The podcast summarized. You know, or summarize a podcast fast. Yeah. You know? Yeah.

Just the bare information is still inside knowledge. Just the bare information about what? About medical stuff? About health devices? About what? News? Is it a news summary? And so you've got to 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. And it gets even harder because I think... blue like jazz i think i edited i think i kept count i don't do it anymore but i think i edited it 54 times

Well, it gets even harder. You know, 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 messages. 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 brand. You want to understand how people are... How this is coming off. Yeah. And why this should be appealing. I see it. I mean, I saw it twice today. Some friends on Instagram are promoting things.

that you know i don't want to say it because i love them and they're friends so i'm not going to throw them under the bus but they were promoting things i'm just like you're 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.

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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 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. Yes. And so what I recommended that she put...

You know, 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. Yep. Right? Yep. And as you've talked about with taglines or our controlling ideas, it opens that story.

Now you go, wait a minute, I have things that aren't real. We've all eaten them. After like six years, you're pulling something out of your pantry. But 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 convinced herself it was a negative yeah as soon as i heard it i just went that's it that's it that's it that's it that's it yeah yeah there was a lady there's a lady in my mastermind gina She's got a...

sort of an aesthetic brand. She's actually sent me a bunch of skin creams. I try not to be insulted by that. She's wonderful. Actually, I went to her and said, what do I do about this? She sent me this wonderful package of stuff. But I love the honesty and 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 cursive knowledge in that? I realize I'm pretty close to Gina's brand and have used it. I can't smell any cursive 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 you know you could you could misunderstand it or as a treatment of some sort

But, you know, if it's on the packaging of a skincare, 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 skincare of some sort. You know, another thing I saw yesterday, I was going through our... Is your family like mine where you have like... 95%

empty jars of peanut butter. Nobody's throwing them away. And like you use all of them to try to get one. And you get really mad that you don't have one. That's right. Oh, that just me? Yeah. We've got three or four brands in there. And one of them... uh just says on the top big letters on the top of the jar it says simply stir and serve And I thought, that's Brian. And even though...

Of course you're going to, you know, if it's a natural peanut butter, it's got the oil floating on the top. Almond butter, yeah. Yeah. That's what makes me think of it. The problem is you open a jar like that and it makes... First of all, it's weird. 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 when I eat the whole thing.

I want a little protein on top of my Hershey's bar. Too much information here probably. Balances it out. Yeah, but. It made it... It offset... That messaging offset the... Oh, come on. when you open the jar yes 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. 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. Get ahead of any negative experience. 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. That tastes better than you can believe. That's right. That's it. Yeah. And I think that that's such a good key point there. One of the things that's 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 cursive knowledge is there

A couple things that you would recommend people do for their brand? Yeah, just one thing. You need some central messaging. It doesn't have to be your tagline. It doesn't have to be your controlling idea. But you need some central messaging saying exactly what it is. 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. You know, 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.

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 yep right and you know so i need to say story brand 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 frame oh messaging You've 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. 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 friends. What a great differentiator. Cowboys are blue collar. There's a kind of an honor and integrity. You know, ethos. It's going to be done right. It's going to be done right. It's probably going to 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'm haven't decided yet about something it's it's just it goes in one ear and out the other well it even applies that you're looking to buy

Yeah. And you're not, but you want to be remembered that when you need a... hire the cowboy what was that cowboy oh that's right yeah that's right versus I don't need a fence right now the other thing I like about hire a cowboy to build your fence is it tells you what to do yes hire a cowboy to do what to build your fence

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? Not much. No. Because you're selling a cheeseburger. That's the best in town. Yeah. But let's say I said celebrate the big moment at... Acme, you know, grow. Well, okay, now you're kind of saying like if you have a big birthday party, there's a great place to do it.

But which messaging is going to do better? Yeah. Or the best cheeseburger in town at Acme Grill or celebrate the big moment at Acme Grill. I would say the cheeseburger. It's 10 to 1. 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, if I said, have your kid's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, not having to think.

yeah i know what chuck 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. And what you're doing, again, and we've said this before, you're thinking for people rather than asking them to think. That's a good clarity right there. Words are thoughts. And when you put words in somebody's brain, you're thinking for them. And if you're thinking, let me give you a fake tagline. Because place matters. Bueno...

A residential apartment complex. No, it's an interior designer. Yeah. Do you know what I'm saying? Yes. And so it's like, what you would want to say is something like, uh interior design you will love yeah Or let's be provocative. Interior design that will make your friends jealous. Ah, there it is. There it is. That's right. 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 is a is a 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 gonna make you better than these people. And that's kind of fun. Now it's a lot better than place matters. Yes. You see what I'm saying? A hundred percent. So you said, so.

Think for the customer so you don't make them think. How did you say that again? You said it really well. Yeah, well, think for the customer. Don't ask them to think. Yeah, that's it. Don't ask them. Yeah, put the thoughts you want them to think. Yeah. in order, and then use words to put them in their head. Take your family to a baseball game. Easy. But yeah, I mean, I'm telling you what to do. And instead of like...

Baseball, America's favorite family sport. 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. Take is the big word there. Action. Take your family to a baseball game. What it's interesting, too, we go back to 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 to record segments so i would remember Problem was, I didn't then go listen to him again, but...

The way they got me was when I heard someone describe the app saying, hey, if you ever wanted to remember what you're listening to, we'll do that for you. Notice that ad. described a problem or a desire that people had and then it associated the product 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. It's better. You don't have to do it, but you're going to succeed a lot more quickly.

Yeah, a couple things I think for listeners here 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 cursor knowledge pays attention to that. Try the tap test. I think Leela Fever even does it on a scale of 1 to 10, where he talks about, you know...

Your Curse of Knowledge, you know, for Place Matters, the Curse of Knowledge is like an eight. Yes. It's like you're not even close. And, man, small businesses. probably break that rule yeah because they're really good at making products really good at caring for customers they didn't go to school for messaging and we love small businesses here and we don't want them to waste money on marketing and messaging because they're not being

That's right. So the controlling idea is say it clearly. And you can say it clearly at storyburn.ai. Save you a lot of money there. I think we changed it to clarify your message so customers engage. We did, yeah. 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 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 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 going to answer some... We're going to ask you to describe the product a little bit, and we're going to give you seven talking points and a tagline and a controlling idea, which is a lot for free. That's right. All right, storyband.ai. Go there now, sitting the fence about your message. Go to storyround.ai. Like a cowboy. Like a cowboy.

Good Cowboys there.

Thanks for listening to the Why That Work 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.