WEBVTT

so there was a character in the movie office space who was obsessed with a red swing line

stapler you might remember it and that one detail made a minor character in a movie really really

memorable and some of us nerds might even think icon. We're going to apply that principle that

they used in the movie, the swing line stapler thing, to your episodes. I'll tell you why and

then I'm going to give you a drill to practice with as well. Welcome to the Podcast Performance

Lab. I'm your host, Jen deHaan, and in this show we take the most effective tools from

unscripted improvised performance and behavioral psychology and apply those things directly to your

video and audio content. Now this process is like moving your content from low res like a really

blurry and abstract photo to a high res photo which is clear and concrete and memorable. You

probably want to have your show or content be memorable like that, something that people

remember, or even quote the specifics a week later. Those specifics also make you more believable

and easier to understand, according to neuropsychology. So let's get into the science

of this, because it explains why so many business podcasts end up sounding roughly the same. And

this problem will be really easy for you to spot or easier in business and sort of corporate shows

like that because businesses like to use really safe words the same safe words and that's because

they don't want to alienate potential customers so they all kind of pull from the same bucket

because it's safer that way it's safer to do this and that's why you're going to hear the same kind

words like synergize or efficiency or optimization that kind of thing and another way we hear this

of course is with generated ai scripts and stuff like that because ai llms they like to use a lot

of the same words and the same phrasing over and over again because of statistics like they're

pulling from the same places and finding the average most likely next word or whatever for

your script. And that's why you get all the scripts sounding about the same, but that's why

you also get a bunch of people talking about how to recognize AI. And they might be pointing out

things from those podcasts, but that in general makes them less memorable because they're all

so similar. And so that's why it happens in the human brain. That's neuroscience.

There's a concept called dual coding theory, and this concept was developed originally by

Alan Paveo. The theory states that our brains have two distinct processing systems. One of those

systems is for verbal information, which is words, and one is for visual information, which is images.

When you use an abstract word like engagement, you only trigger the verbal system and the brain

processes the text. And that's about it. That's where it ends. But when you use a concrete word

or a phrase such as a hot take on blue sky instead of the word engagement, you trigger both systems.

The brain hears that phrase and it simultaneously calls up an image of like a loaded comment on blue

sky or the image of a social media platform in general that the user uses and knows and can

associate with. And that thing happening in their brain vastly improves their memory retention of

the thing that you just said. Like they'll recall that information much easier down the road. Now,

this is why dual coding is used in traditional classrooms, an instructional design to help

students learn. Now here's an example of an abstract and concrete hook. Here's the abstract

one. I'll discuss solutions to your workflow to achieve better efficiency. And here's a concrete

hook. I'll show you the Stream Deck settings that let you add sound effects faster so you can finish

your edits in one take. This leads to another concept known as concreteness fading. So over time

our memory fades, but the concrete details, the things like that red swing line, stapler,

and office space, they survive the fade much longer than abstract concepts like a stapler.

Like if they just used a generic stapler or some office supplies in the movie, you probably

wouldn't remember that part of it 30 or 40 years later. So if you want your episode to be remembered,

say next week, you need to give the brain of your listener some kind of handle to just kind of grab

onto, like the swing line stapler. And I'll put the links for all of the science in the show notes.

So let's get into the performance side of things now. In improv specifics, make your scene more

believable and more memorable and more visual and sometimes even funny. If I'm in a scene and I say

to my scene partner, pass me the sauce. The audience, they hear it, they understand it,

it's sauce, but they don't really care too much about that sauce. It's just a thing. So they're

not going to remember it. And they also might have to guess what the sauce is because improv uses

mimes instead of props. But instead, if I say, hey, pass me the Bernays sauce, the one there in the

cow-shaped gravy boat. Now, all of a sudden, the world of that scene is kind of blown out in the

mind of the audience. Like, they're going to see a gravy boat that they know. They're going to

make it cow-shaped in their mind. And then they might think of that Bernays sauce. Like,

oh, I had that before. It's the yellow sauce, right, with the green flakes. So that one change

from abstract to concrete blows out the world. It builds up that scene and it makes it a lot more

memorable. It gives your audience, the people listening, a lot more tools to like grab onto

that item and remember it later. And they also might get curious and wonder like, why is Bernays

sauce in a gravy boat? Like, could you even pour that out or whatever? All of those tools and those

things happening are going to help them remember. And also, if you're delivering an audio-only

podcast, these sort of details are so important. They're vital, really, because you don't have a

video camera to actually show people these things. So you have to say them. You have to explain

everything using more descriptive language to help your listeners envision these things in their

brain. And of course, it's going to make your show more memorable too. So how do you actually do this

without rewriting your entire scripts? You can use a drill that I'm going to call zoom in and focus.

And you can do this with your existing scripts or your transcripts. The goal is to find people and

measurements or objects that are really vague and then sort of zoom in on those things

so they're easily seen or understood. So here's an example. Let's say your script

says something like, we improve our client's efficiency. Now, that's like a really low-res

kind of statement. It's not really conjuring anything. It's blurry. It's abstract. It's just

our client and efficiency, right? So when we apply this method, this thing to it, we're asking

questions like, who is the client or how much time are they saving? Or what do they do with this thing?

Or what do they actually perform? So the new version of that, the rewrite, could be something

like, we helped Linda implement a one-take podcast recording. She saved three hours every week so she

dog Susan more often. So yeah, that one's a little bit longer. You're not going to do it,

like add all of those things for everything. These are just practice phrases. So you added who,

Linda, how, one take recordings, a specific measure in there, which is the three hours,

and a visual outcome that people can really kind of grab onto and imagine, which is

her walking her dog Susan. So if you moved from an abstract concept to a concrete concept,

that's really going to improve your scripts. Again, you don't need to add this many details

to your sentences. Your script would end up really wordy. This is just so you can get

the idea and the practice. So okay, about the practice. There's two ways to practice this,

And the first one is quite easy.

You're just going to do an edit of an existing transcript or a script you want to work on.

So you're going to go through your script.

You're going to go through your notes.

You're going to pick out all of those like business word kind of things, the abstract

words, concepts, phrases.

You're going to highlight those and then you're going to fill them in.

So figure out what kind of level of blowout do you want to use for these things.

if you want to highlight a lot of the words or just add a few extra details. So the level two

is the live zoom in. This is the one where you're going to just add a note, like a

square brackets note, where you say add some details inside the square brackets. So you're

going to add them on the fly when you're recording or if you're live streaming, that kind of thing.

So you're practiced doing it live, the live zoom in.

So you're not adding these specifics.

You're just going to think of them on the spot.

You're going to do it in your head.

If you're doing interviews or webinars, you're doing these live streams,

it can help to get really fast at this when you can't script your answers.

So how do you practice that?

One way is to do what improvisers do.

You can use a word randomizer app.

These are like suggestion apps if you're practicing improv.

And this will give you a random word that it'll just pop up in the app.

And then you can read that word and then you can adjust it to add some details.

So in this case, you're just practicing adding details to words or concepts or things that you know.

And this will help you get really fast at just thinking.

Like, for example, if you banter with your co-host in a podcast, this can really help you think up of things on the spot.

So there's apps like Impro Muse or Andy Smith Online that will give you random word suggestions,

and I'll put links to those apps in the description.

But there's a whole bunch of them around. You can get them for your phone as well.

Those are browser-based, the links that I'm going to be giving you.

What you're going to do is get that random prop and one of those apps and challenge yourself to come up with at least three specific details in a row that are based on that random word.

And this is going to train your brain to just reach for like red stapler kind of ideas instead of just stapler or office supplies.

Like the app is going to give you stapler and then you'd be talking like red swing line stapler, the staple gun like that does multiple pages.

and just anything that it makes you think.

It might think of, you might think of Office Depot, right?

So you're going to be thinking of specifics

as opposed to general things.

And if you want these kind of exercises in a written format,

subscribe to the newsletter at stereoforest.com

and you'll get these things right in your inbox.

So specificity, it builds trust.

It builds memorable episodes.

So let me know, send me an email if you want

or comment on one of the online sources of this episode

about some of the details that you added in your script.

And I'll see you in the next episode.

Bye for now.

You have been listening to the Podcast Performance Lab.

This show is created, written, hosted, edited, and produced by Jen deHaan.

You can also find the video version of this episode on YouTube

and contact information on Stereo Forest.

Find the links for both of those things in the show notes.

Thanks for listening.