Make Your Sound Bites Steal-able With One-Liners

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Make Your Sound Bites Steal-able With One-Liners

Create steal-able sound bites so your audience remembers them and you. You can make memorable sound bites with one-liners like these.

Today I want to talk about sound bites. First just what they are and then to share with you a couple of really great ones from famous people and also from people who have been in my Your Signature Sound Bites course or who have been my clients.

What are sound bites? Mark Twain weighs in

So what are sound bites first? I love when Mark Twain was asked about what a maxim is. He said: “Define that” and he said it’s a minimum of sound to a maximum of sense. So sound bites are really just your key phrases. They’re not mysterious, they’re your key phrases, they’re fascinating facts, they’re anecdotes, they’re stories, they’re vignettes. They’re stories, statistics, facts, anecdotes, analogies, acronyms.

And you have a mix of these. So it’s not like sound bites are your whole conversation, they’re woven skillfully into the conversation. But one thing that’s really key in a sound bite is that it’s packed with meaning and that it is memorable and repeatable. Whether it’s a story or a fact or just a one-liner, you want that to be embedded in the memory of the person and also in their hearts so they really feel it.

One of the most famous sound bites is…

So I was just looking over one of my past blog posts and what phrase did I find in there? “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” Muhammad Ali describing himself. He was his own best publicist. So I float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. I mean that was such a great description of what he does in the boxing ring and now we’ve heard that hundreds of times since he just passed. So that’s a really great one liner. So that really sticks in your mind.

The Oxymoron sound bite

Now I want to give you one that’s maybe not quite as memorable but that is something that I really loved. And this is by Amos As. So I’m going to take a quick peek over here in my document. I was listening to him, he’s an Israeli author and I heard him speak a while back and he’s so passionate, so vibrant and very lovely.

He said, “I thought that my book which is called A Tale of Love and Darkness would only be of interest to people in my village or my vintage. But I found that the more local I was, the more universal my message.”

That’s a different kind of sound bite. I mean that’s a little bit more intellectual but I really like that phrase in there too “from my village or my vintage.” That’s the part that may stick in your mind. And then here’s what he said about the sound bite he says “I love Israel in the moments when I don’t like it.”

And I love this because this really captures his whole philosophy of loving his land and yet fighting for peace. So it’s kind of an oxymoron. Fighting for peace. That’s kind of like in your head like “Whaaat?” So that’s what partly makes it memorable. It’s kind of a little kooky. You got the two opposing ideas. So that’s why I thought that was really powerful.

The light, funny sound bite

And then another one that’s on the lighter side for example from my clients who were also in this seminar. Kelly Kitty and Jennifer O’Neil. They’re authors of the book called Decorating with Funky Shui: How to Lighten Up, Loosen Up, and Have Fun Decorating Your Home. Great name right? That’s kind of a pun in itself right? A sound bite in itself. They define Funky Shui as less about wind chimes and more about snow globes. So that’s their sound bite for describing their book, which you should have by the way. If you’re describing your book you do want kind of a one-liner that tells what your book is about.

And then the sound bite that I loved which was in their romance chapter about your bedroom is “A single white rosebud in a glass vase represents chastity so you don’t have to.” Ok so that’s funny, it’s cute and you definitely get a visual image. So that’s what we’re talking about sound bites too is that you want a sound bite that gives you a feeling, makes you see something, hear it and remember it.

The analogy sound bite

Then another one is from my client who also took my Your signature sound bites course Marty Friedman. He did private one-on-one coaching with me. He’s a successful management consultant of 25 years. And now he’s also an expert in men in marriage.

And he says: “The biggest mistake men in marriage make is in relationships because they think of their marriage like a refrigerator. They expect it to run by itself, plug it in and go.” So that kind of sums up in a few words the essential difference between men and women, right? It’s not going to plug and play.

The alliteration sound bite packed with meaning

And another one liner that a client I came up with Kelli  my god I can’t believe I’m forgetting he last name. So when that happens you just need to go on. So she [Kelli Fox] owned Astrology.com and sold it to iVillage for 80 million dollars. And one of the things that we came up with is “astrology is a guide not a god.”

So that was a line that was so good that any host who was introducing her when she was doing a TV show stole. So you want to have these really great lines. Hopefully you don’t want the media to steal them because lots of times they do and then you have to come up with another great line because they’ve already taken your best one.

But anyway that’s such a great line “astrology is a guide not a god” that it does get stolen. You want to have your sound bites so they’re stealable, right? But the point is that even if the journalist doesn’t, you want your audience to steal it and take it for their own.

So that’s it for some sound bite examples. Those were different examples of one-liners. You had the one from Muhammad Ali that was the one-liner describing himself. The other one from Amos Oz that was a little bit more of his relationship with his country. And then Kitty and her sister Jennifer the O’Neil sisters authors of Funky Shui that was kind of like funny. And then you’ve got Marty who created a great analogy.

So you’ve got all of these different types. So you can see the range of sound bites where you have this kind of way that you have to explore and be creative. Have some fun, humor, pathos, whatever that is that will move your audience. So think about those kinds of things that you can weave into the conversation that will be memorable or make people feel.

So I will look forward to connecting to you soon. And if you have a great sound bite please send it to me at mgr@prsecretstore.com I would love to hear your great sound bite. Or just record it into speakpipe right on this page.

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Are you enjoying the Podcast? Then I invite you to hop on over to iTunes to subscribe, rate + review it. Here’s a quick video on how to do a podcast review on iTunes. (It’s simple if you follow these directions). Note: It can take up to 24 hours to show up on my Podcast. You’re welcome to send this to anyone you think it would delight. May good fortune always follow you!

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Want to be a guest on my Podcast? Jet me an email with your topic and a link to your bio here.

Send Susan a Voice Message!

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