Mastering Communication

Hey everybody, welcome to this episode of the NerdBrand Podcast. We’re going to be talking about breaking down the walls, a deep dive into effective communication. So start the upbeat music. Thanks everybody for joining us on this episode of the NerdBrand podcast. We’re going to talk about breaking down the walls, a deep dive into effective communication, and it’s in a fascinating world.

Communication it’s an easy thing to do. It’s actually easier than it sounds. For some reason, there’s a lot of anxiety and overwhelmingness of communicating A text message, a phone call, an email. We have so many channels, even social media, so many channels to effectively communicate and stay in touch with people, even if it’s like a single click of a like button or whatever it is. It’s kind of amazing how communication has evolved, but it’s the bedrock of human interaction. So, if it’s a casual conversation with a friend or a crucial presentation at work, or navigating a complex relationship, your ability to connect with each other through words, or both spoken and unspoken, it’ll shape every aspect of your lives and your business. So it’s more than just conveying information, though. Effective communication is about building bridges, understanding, fostering empathy and creating meaningful connections. If you’re unable to have empathy, woe to you. If you’re an apathetic person. Well, it’s going to be a little harder for you Not impossible, but a little harder.

And don’t forget the power of nonverbal communication. One of the movies that’s out there is a romantic comedy called Hitch and with Will Smith and Eva, something I don’t know many of you out there listening may know and he says in the very beginning 80% of what you say isn’t coming out of your mouth. So kind of keep that in mind. Always try to even fake a smile if you can, because you know some of us have resting bitch face. Let’s just be honest, it’s not our fault, it’s just the way we’re born. So let’s don’t forget the powerful of that nonverbal communication body language, your tone of voice, facial expressions and it can convey so much just from not being spoken.

So you know, crossed arms may signal defensiveness, even though those of us are actively aware. No, we’re just comfortable that way. Um, sometimes it’s also a self um protective state, or I don’t want to say medicated state, cause that requires drugs, but uh, just say no kids, um, but it requires a little bit of like. You know understanding that. But you don’t want to have your arms crossed, so you want to make sure if you’re in a meeting. Don’t cross your arms, have a warm smile, create a sense of openness and trust. And a lot of that has to do with sometimes very difficult conversations you have to have, because without those difficult conversations you’re not going to know where each other stands and it’s just going to be walking on eggshells moving forward. So it’s very difficult.

Another pitfall is understanding others, how others understand us. You know we often make assumptions about others, know what they think they’ll interpret in our message, and it can lead to frustration. So with me I always tell people I relay information. I’m kind of computer one zero done. I don’t really have a middle between the on and off a lot with communication. Because you’re asking me for information, so true to the wiki. I will tell you Sometimes that can be taken as apathetic, rude, mean or otherwise something else. So no. But if you get to know me enough and you get to know many others in the company enough, you’ll start to see how different we are. And I’m okay if you want to talk to Jacob more. He’s nicer to talk to I get it. You know even Mitch. So you know I’m not that guy, but you know we all still. It’s not an excuse, guy, but you know, we all still it doesn’t. It’s not an excuse, like when you start to look at things.

A lot of people would take these tests. Where am I on the? Um? Oh God, what was it? It’s? It’s a four letter. So four letter word for like where you’re at you know how aggressive you are in sales. I don’t know they were running. This is a big deal last year.

Many of you maybe know what I’m talking about. But personality tests are fine, but do not use it as an excuse to justify how you behave. I see that a lot. I see people that will take a personality test and go. That’s me, that’s how I’m going to act. Well, what if you’re an a-hole? Maybe? Don’t act that way. If it points that out, work on it. So don’t use that as an excuse. Don’t use a third party outside sources and excuse for your behavior. Always try to be better.

Um, but uh, anyway, jargon. Jargon is a fun one. Uh, jargon is all over the marketing industry and branding. We use different language and it gets intermixed with each other, but it doesn’t mean the same thing and everyone says the same thing, sells the same thing and has a different price and we wonder why potential customers are confused. So, complex language it creates barriers to understanding and it’s crucial to tailor your communication style to your audience. Branding it’s a brand message. So I’m not trying to say marketing bad, branding good. It’s not a good or bad, it’s not a this or that, it’s a both, and it’s just both have to be thought out. So active listening versus not active listening Active listening is paramount.

You got to really pay attention. Who’s speaking, right? You got to pay attention to the speaker. You got to ask really clear questions and not just kind of ramble or throw stuff out there and then you got to think back on what you heard to ensure that you understand it. Maybe you have to repeat it to them. Maybe you have to say something like hey, this is what I think you said. I’m not sure I’m not trying to be defensive or anything. I’m just making sure I understand. So practice empathy. Try to see things from the other person’s perspective. Be mindful of your tone. Harsh or dismissive tone can quickly derail a conversation. Embrace feedback. Be open to receive and giving constructive feedback. Practice active listening Truly listen to understand, not just to respond and I apologize for the coughing.

You would think that I would record something that I would not do that, but wouldn’t you know I love allergies. They just come and go whenever they feel like, and then be mindful of your body language to ensure that nonverbal cues can align with the message you’re trying to project. So it affects our personal lives, professional lives, and if you can hone this, you can really really start to see progress in whatever journey it is that you’re trying to take, professionally or personally. And that is the first half of this episode. That’s all I got on communication part.

So now let’s talk about some of the things that have been going on in the media and the news, because it’s hard to avoid. Let’s talk about some of the things that have been going on in the media and the news, because it’s hard to avoid Lots of wildfires that have happened in LA. I’ve had a personal friend whose house nearly got burnt down right up to the edge. She said so you know, if you’re interested in nonprofits to donate to or how to get involved, I’m sure there’s plenty of places for you to reach out to. But you can also talk to the folks at Third Circle Networking Group. They have plenty of people there that I’m sure know where to connect you to. They’re still dealing with a lot in the southeastern part of the country from the hurricane. So don’t forget those people. They need help. And you can also go to that same networking group that meets every other Friday at Dave Buster’s here in Louisville Kentucky, every other Friday at Dave and Buster’s here in Louisville Kentucky. So you want to check that out, if you can. And if you approach David Meek, tell him you heard this episode and that’s why you’re asking.

So there’s that Movie news, oh man, tv, broadcast television. I know a lot of people want to run ads on there and I’ve seen a lot of ads being run and that’s fine. The thing about it is is that it’s dying really quickly. Now I feel like, uh, now I think there’s always going to be a place for it, just like there’s still newspapers, still magazines. But I do think that ads alone on broadcast television is a bad idea. Even if you have ads and Google display ads, you still have to add some. There’s gotta be more channels.

So a multi-channel um approach to that video, that piece of content you have, is always a good idea, and you kind of want to shoot that video too in a couple of different aspect ratios. There’s a lot of. When you buy a television, it’s in a 16 by nine, that’s what that is Right, and when you hold your phone, that’s a nine by 16 ratio. So you want to shoot video both ways, to provide that to your marketing team so that they can repurpose it for whatever channel they may want to put it on, and I’m going to talk about a channel that rhymes with click bop, bop, whatever.

Yeah, is that going to go away as of this recording of this episode? Well, no, it’s not. It is going to not. You’re not going to get updates for it. If they decide to ban it, you will eventually see the degrading performance of the app. It will get slow or it may not open at all if your device updates to the next operating system version. So it is something that could die quickly because of that and if TikTok decides to just flat out cut off the United States altogether. Anyway, it’s kind of a surprise because there’s 170 million Americans that use it, at least on the recording here predominantly Gen Z, but a lot of millennial business owners anywhere between up to the. Because there’s 170 million Americans that use it, at least on the recording here Predominantly Gen Z, but a lot of millennial business owners anywhere between up to the age of 40, are using it, and it is generating billions of dollars in our economy. It’s also a gateway to other content platforms, including OnlyFans, and so you have to think about the money and the economic impact this is going to have by banning an app that they’re worried that the Chinese have data on, when it is this nerd’s opinion that they already have your data, because, especially when the FBI announces, telecom companies have been compromised.

So I don’t know if TikTok is that relevant If you’re worried about it when they can actually read your text messages, it’s a bit different. So what do you do? Where do you go? You’re like well, I was on TikTok. Well, facebook has Reels, instagram has Reels those platforms and the way they’re designed is the very mimicking of TikTok, but they don’t. They’re not like the first when you fire up the app on TikTok. It’s not that way with those platforms. You know you land on a Facebook feed or you land on your Instagram feed and then you go to Reels. You land on your Instagram feed and then you go to Reels, and so it’s not exactly the same, but it’s something that, if you’re thinking of using an alternative, it could be quite dangerous to do that, because it’s sort of you know what’s the saying out of the frying pan into the oven. So, even though TikTok may be bad and people may have a negative opinion about it, so, even though TikTok may be bad and people may have a negative opinion about it, jumping to the next thing could be bad. It could be worse. So definitely take a step back.

If you’re running marketing campaigns and ads, or if you have plans to develop content, I think that you should continue with that, to have a talk with your marketing team and strategist and say, hey, if this thing comes to an end Sunday, january 20th, what do we do January 21st? What’s our plan? And are we contacting our agency to collaborate with them to get ideas on where we can take our ads and move them to, especially if you’re running any sort of paid budgets, that’s going to be pretty hard to make up and you have to prepare for a drop regardless, because you can’t just sidestep and, uh, maintain the same momentum. It just doesn’t work. So you do have to have that mindset that there is a bit of a there’s going to be a bit of a hiccup with this, but it’s not doom and gloom.

Um’ve seen plenty of channels come and go. Chatgpt is still trying to expand. It has a search function-ish and it can generate organic results for folks that could lead to revenue. Google has hinted many times. In previous episodes I’ve mentioned that you’re probably going to be looking at a prompt box and not a search box for Google. Therefore, everything you ask it about yourself will be pulled from what it can find online about you, which is sort of a really transparent look at how SEO works, because a lot of people still ask about SEO Without good content, without images and pictures and videos seeded not only on your site but on social channels and on other places.

Seo is content and it’s people. So search engine optimized people S-E-O-A, s-e-o-p, s-e-o-p Kind of like soap, isn’t it?

Anyways, think about all those things coming up. It’s going to be an exciting, weird year. It’s going to be a lot of pivots. We’ll get to do more tap dancing this year than I think we’ve ever done in the last four years, but hopefully it doesn’t last very long, because I don’t know about you, but my tap shoes they got holes in the soles, so I’d like some stability, please. Anyhow, speaking of which, if you love this episode. Go to nerdbrandagency.com/podcast. Leave some feedback on Facebook. You know, show me you’re a human so happy to share your information on this podcast and talk about you if you leave a nice thing to say. If you don’t leave a nice little much thing to say, it’s probably going to ban you anyway. So you know, it’s kind of what happens to us. So anyhow, just kidding, make sure you go to nerdbrandagency.com/podcast, subscribe to the latest episodes and be sure to keep your nerd brand strong.