Part of what made the legacy of people like Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. larger than life is what they said to their followers. Their public speeches prompted the masses to bring about revolutions that have gone down in the history as unforgettable events. Such is the power of words!
“I have a dream..” is a phrase that moves the listener every time you hear it, because this popular phrase by Martin Luther King Jr. is inscribed in our hearts and souls and is equally impactful for every new generation.
Language is powerful not just in the leadership of politics but in businesses as well and we will talk about this particular aspect today. Choosing the right words for your content or marketing strategy sparks the curiosity of your target market. It allows you to better communicate and negotiate.
Following are some key points in how you can enrich your language to deliver your message more effectively:
Address in native tongue
Create relevance to the audience
Use powerful keywords
Use punch words with power words
Capitalize on good timing
But the most important of them all is to enrich your vocabulary. You would be surprised to know it is not the latest technology that can help you grow your business. In fact, its something as simple as the words you speak. This is what Tony Robbins coined as “transformational vocabulary”. Now this term transformational vocabulary implies that our choice of words can transform our experiences. To explain further, it states that if we change what vocabulary we use habitually, we can actually change the way we think and experience things. It goes on to prove that we can change our lives when we become conscious with the words we use. What’s more, your linguistic vocabulary is associated with your thinking vocabulary which means if you have good vocabulary or practice to make it better, it will also impact your thoughts to be more concise and precise.
The choice of right words combined with a well-told story is nothing short of an art.
After all, it is only the most powerful tool known to humanity. Since speaking comes all to natural to us, we would think words are cheap. The fact is, words are expensive. They come with a cost; may it be your self-worth or your patience. But you should also know when to stop and how not to lose perspective by becoming so engrossed in your own idea that the outcome of your words is lost to the listener. Similarly, redundancy is all too real as well. Remember when the term “user friendly” came out. It was so attractive and soon everyone was using it, so much so that within a year or so it totally lost its essence.
The power of language has stayed true in every era and the choice of words always the king.
And as Robin Williams rightly put it, “no matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world”.