Dear Reader,

People don’t trust what they can’t see.

And they can’t see generalities.

Vague language feels safe to the speaker. But it feels slippery to the listener.

This episode exists because this lesson kept showing up.

In ads.
In leadership conversations.
In businesses that struggled to connect.

Not because they were dishonest.

But because they were unclear.

These aren’t theories. They’re real observations from decades of watching what actually persuades.

Specifics do the heavy lifting.

They create pictures.

They create belief.

Generalities do the opposite.

They protect the speaker.
They distance the audience.

If your words can’t create a picture, they won’t create trust. If your language can’t carry detail, it won’t carry belief.The real limit on your business isn’t creativity.

It’s your willingness to be specific.

 

Watch/listen above or read below.

Todd Liles: Welcome to Todd Liles and the Wizard of Ads. And today we’re doing something a little different. Over the course of this season, Roy and I have explored a wide range of conversations, examples, and observations. And if you’re listened closely, you’ve noticed that certain principles keep resurfacing. Sometimes they’re stated directly. Sometimes they’re revealed through a story, but they’re always pointing to the same underlining truths.

And in this episode, this is the first of three special episodes where we’re going to focus on one of those principles and explore it very deeply all in one place. This is not a recap and it’s not a highlight. But it’s a chance to slow down and really hear the idea clearly without distractions. So, the principle we’re focusing on today is simple to say, but it’s hard to live by. Specifics persuade and generalities waste time.

You’re going to hear Roy walk through this idea in depth. Why it matters, how it works, and why the smallest details are often the ones that create the greatest trust. These are longer explanations drawn from different moments across the season because this idea shows up everywhere once you start looking for it. Now if you’ve wondered why some messages stick and others disappear, and why some stories stick and others disappear, and why some stories feel real and others feel empty, or why clarity builds confidence faster than cleverness ever could, this episode is for you.

Let’s get into it.

Roy Williams: “America is covered with houses about 1,600 feet, three bedrooms, two and a half baths. If you have a home like that, we can replace the entire air conditioning system for $12,000. If I described your house and it’s time for you to replace the whole system, anybody charging you more than 12,000 is making you spend more than you have to spend. It’s a basic system, but it’ll work great.”

Now, here’s what’s interesting. I named a specific house size and a specific price for the system. Okay? Now all of a sudden, a person is armed with information. Man, that thing had no loopholes in it. See what I mean?

Todd Liles: Mm-hmm.

Roy Williams: And it’s like, dang, that takes courage. And you know why the person reacts strongly to it? ‘Cause most people don’t talk that way.

Todd Liles: Right.

Roy Williams: This person has confidence. This person has details. And they’ll name it. They’ll name the details and just go, “That’s what we’ll do.” Boom. And so that’s the specifics the way that you were referring to them. Let me give you another type of specific.

Todd Liles: Okay.

Roy Williams: Okay. And then we’ll talk about show don’t tell. And the person who made a very powerful show don’t tell statement made it many, many years before the invention of television or even photography. And so what he was talking about is show them using your words.

Todd Liles: Show them using your words.

Roy Williams: You show them using your words. I just showed you an air conditioning system and a house. Using words, not pictures.

Todd Liles: I’m with you.

Roy Williams: Using words, not pictures. And so when we say show don’t tell, we’re not saying pictures, we’re saying pictures in the mind. Pictures in the mind that can be conjured by words delivered in any format. The written word, the spoken word. Now, here’s the deal. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, called the Synoptic Gospels. Did you know that in the New Testament Gospels, when a story has people’s names in it and the people all have names, Zacchaeus that climbed the sycamore tree, it’s in the book of Luke. All the stories where people have names are in Luke.

Todd Liles: I didn’t know that.

Roy Williams: Yep. Luke names what kind of a tree it was and the guy’s name who was so short he had to climb the tree to see Jesus as he passed by. Matthew doesn’t do it. He was a tax collector, he’s a numbers man. Mark didn’t do it, he was an activities guy. And half of the whole gospel or two-thirds of the whole Gospel of Mark, it’s the shortest one, make the point it’s all about the passion, it’s all about the crucifixion. But Luke was a physician. Luke was a people person, and so everybody had a name and included lots of details, and you can visualize the things that happen in the book of Luke better than you can in any of the other gospels.

Todd Liles: So as a writer… See, I’m sure pastors have recognized that, and I’ve been through the Gospels. Those details didn’t stand out to me. But as a writer, that must pop out to you. It’s obvious.

Roy Williams: No, no, no. Somebody taught me that.

Todd Liles: Someone…

Roy Williams: I didn’t notice it on my own.

Todd Liles: You didn’t notice. Okay, well, good for you for being honest.

Roy Williams: Yeah, yeah. No, the point is this, he uses specifics because the story… See, anytime you remember a story from the New Testament and you know the names of people or what kind of a tree it was, it’s always Luke. It was like, just be aware, that was always Luke. And so you remember the stories very vividly. Why? Because he gave you specifics by which to remember the stories.

And so that’s the power of specifics. It doesn’t have to be information about making decisions. It doesn’t have to be 1,600-foot house, three bedrooms, two and a half bath. That’s a very specific house that many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many millions of people own, most common house in America. And so to name the most common house in America and a specific price for a new air conditioning system, basic AC. Yeah. It’s powerful because it is specific.

Todd Liles: Yeah.

Roy Williams: But naming the type of tree and the name of the man and the fact that he was very short, which explains why he had to climb the tree, we’re given three specifics about this moment. And the average person remembers the story of Zacchaeus who climbed the tree, okay? And Jesus looked up and said, “Hey.” And he was a horrible little guy. He was a little criminal. He was a tax collector, which basically was a con man back in that day. And he says, “Hey, you, Zacchaeus,” called him by name, “we’re gonna have lunch at your house today.” And everybody was gasping, going, “You obviously don’t know what kind of man that is.” And Zacchaeus comes down and he goes, “Hey, man, anybody I’ve overcharged, I’m gonna repay it double.” And he just starts talking about how he’s gonna turn his life around. And it’s kind of like, that moment is so memorable because of specifics.

Todd Liles: Right.

Roy Williams: And without the specifics, it’s less memorable because you don’t… A little short guy that everybody hates. God, that’s an interesting story. Now, the person before images were really a thing, right? Leo Tolstoy, Russian writer, he said, “Don’t tell me the moon is shining. Show me the glint of light on broken glass.” And so he’s saying when you talk about how the moonlight was glinting off the broken glass, you know that it’s dark, and you know that the moon is shining. He doesn’t tell you the moon is shining. He makes you see the moon shine by the glint on the broken glass.

And so the specifics are the glint of light on broken glass. And so if you tell them the moon was shining, it’s like that’s just… That’s telling. But to talk about the glint of the moonlight on the broken glass is to give them a very, very specific, tiny detail that a person notices. But now you’re in that moment. You’re in that moment. You see the glint of the light on the broken glass. You know the moon is shining without him having to tell you that the moon is shining and that it’s nighttime.

And so Leo Tolstoy, one of the great writers, right, actually offered that advice. And so when we say show, don’t tell, show them in their imagination by using specifics to make them see something vividly, to make them understand something very, very, very specifically, and so that they now understand it clearly enough. He was a short little guy named Zacchaeus. He was a tax collector. Everybody hated him. He climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus as he passed by because he was too short to see over the crowd. You give ’em those kinds of specifics, and they go, “Wow.”

Now, the stuff that happens next, you have so much backstory, and you understand so many implied things. See what I mean? That when Jesus says, “Hey, man, I’m gonna go home with you and have lunch,” it’s like, “What? Me? Wow.” And everybody’s going, “What? Him? Wow. Why that guy? He’s horrible.” And so that whole thing makes you understand just this huge thing about Jesus that made him special and different is because he knew that guy. He knew everything about that guy and chose him anyway. And you’re going, “Wow.” And so Luke, unbelievably intimate, intimate storyteller. He’s making you see what he saw. He’s making you understand and feel what he felt.

And it takes specifics to do that. And so anytime you’re telling any kind of a story, yeah, yeah, yeah, include the square footage of the house and the price and the fact that it’s a basic air conditioner, whatever you want to do. But I’m saying it’s not just limited to product or service offers. It’s part of storytelling in general.

Todd Liles: Yeah.

Roy Williams: I’ll begin by saying there are only nine declarative sentences in English. And the way that those nine sentences come into existence, the first thing you do is you choose, consciously or unconsciously, and frankly, most people do it unconsciously. First-person perspective. First-person is me, I, we, our. Our company, we do this. Me, my, we, our. Second-person: You, the reader, the listener, the viewer. You. Third-person: not me, not you. Him, her, they, them. Okay.

So years and years and years ago, probably 20 years ago, when I was first teaching this, Jeffrey and Bryan Eisenberg put together a little calculator, and it went viral because they have huge influence. And they said it was the we-we calculator. And what you would do is you would upload into this thing ad copy, and then it would simply score how often you referred to me, my, we, our, first-person. And it would give you the score that… And so how often were you talking about they or them or those people over there? But then the important thing is, and here’s the shortcut, the shortcut is if you open with the word you, you are now talking to the customer about the customer.

Todd Liles: Right.

Roy Williams: And the more often you use the word you, the better your ad copy, and the less times you talk about I, me, my, we, our. First person, everybody wants to write in the first person because they want to talk about themselves and their company. And you just look for, go down through there, and how many times did I refer to I, me, my, we, our? And then you say, “Okay, if I reframe this and come at it from a different angle?”

This is the thing that I did in what now is an extremely famous radio ad for Rolex. Now stay with me.

“You are standing in the snow, five and one-half miles above sea level, gazing at a horizon hundreds of miles away. It occurs to you that life here is very simple. You live or you die. No compromises, no whining, no second chances. This is a place constantly ravaged by wind and storm, where every ragged breath is an accomplishment. You stand on the uppermost pinnacle of the earth. This is the mountain they call Everest. Yesterday, it was considered unbeatable, but that was yesterday. As Edmund Hillary surveyed the horizon from the peak of Mount Everest, he monitored the time on a wristwatch that had been specifically designed to withstand the fury of the world’s most angry mountain. Rolex believes Sir Edmund would conquer the mountain, and especially for him, they created the Rolex Explorer. In every life, there’s a Mount Everest to be conquered. When you have conquered yours, you’ll find your Rolex waiting patiently for you to come and pick it up at Justice Jewelers. I’m Woody Justice, and I’ve got a Rolex for you.”

Now, if you count the word “you” and “your” in there, it’s loaded up with “you” and “your.” That’s why it’s engaging. That’s why you’re involved in the ad. Something’s happening to you, and it’s happening right now. So it is, the three choices you make is first-person, second-person, third-person perspective. You make that choice. Then you use past tense, present tense, or future tense verbs. And so that was second-person perspective about you are standing in the snow.

Now, the “are standing,” oh, that’s present tense. And so that’s one of the nine sentences is second-person present tense. Second-person past tense. Second-person future tense. You will be feeling too warm, and you turn the thermostat down, and it doesn’t help. And then you name the company. And what happens is you’re not saying, “I do this,” or “We do this.” You talk to the customer about a moment they will experience in the future. And when you, when this happens to you, walk to the phone and… See what I mean?

Todd Liles: Absolutely.

Roy Williams: And so now all of a sudden, choose your perspective. And the more often you say “you” and “your,” you, your home, your air conditioner, your comfort, and so that forces you into that perspective of making it about the customer. Open with the word “you,” and that’s the simplest way to do it. Now, you can get there without it being the opening word, but I’m saying just if you’re going to practice this and you just want to do an exercise, write down the word “you,” and you’re talking to the customer about the customer, and then finish that sentence.

And then decide consciously, “I’m gonna make this a past tense story about something happened in the past,” or is it a present tense story as though it’s happening right this minute in their imagination, or do I make it future tense, something that will happen in the future? But it doesn’t matter. The more often you use the word “you” and “your,” the stronger the ad. Mic drop.

Todd Liles: What you just heard is one of those ideas that sounds obvious once it’s explained, but changes the way you hear language forever after that. When you start paying attention to specifics, you’ll realize how much vague language is everywhere and how often it’s used to avoid commitment rather than create clarity.

Now, this episode is the first in a short series where we’re taking the biggest ideas that surface repeatedly throughout this season and giving each one the space it deserves. Now, in the next episode, we’ll take on another principle that comes up over and over again in Roy’s work, one that has to do with time, patience, and how you measure success quietly determining the kind of business that you’ll end up building. Oh, you’re gonna want to tune in. So until then, I’m Todd Liles, and thanks for listening.

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