Never Shut the F*ck Up

Never shut the f*ck up.

If you’re not googling vocabulary words, I’m not speaking my natural language. (Yeah, you probably should pull up a tab for dictionary.com real quick, and bear with me, this is will revolutionize the way you talk about what you do.)

I bemoan the days when eloquence was regarded with esteem. Where one could orate loquaciously and nary an eye would bat. Words as canvas and interpretation a melody sung without tune. Nowadays ‘tis met with raised eyebrows and “what are you even talking about”. Hear my lamentation, either as a companion or a barricade to your sensibilities, but nevertheless, I weep.

Through bitter tears, let me tell you the tale of how I learned to keep talking, even when people thought I was annoying for prattling on like a 19th century brooding poet.

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I used to teach high school English . That one teacher you had a crush on? That was me. Fit, fun, and knew your name, so you couldn’t even escape that awkward interaction in the hallway where I saw you and reached out for a high five. I think I even heard someone say “I’m never washing this hand again”.

In the classroom, I loved teaching vocabulary words. Fun fact (actually, not fun at all, more like soul-crushing), American literacy averages at a 6th grade level. Most spoken language in the world and we speak it like 11 year-olds.

Which means vocabulary was a lesson in futility.

Language evolves and people don’t talk like they used to, which is necessary. That’s the way culture works - if we still talked like Shakespeare, pray tell, ‘twoulds’t no fucking sense maketh.

Why does any of this matter for you?

Because you should never shut up about what you do.

You may not relate at all to the first portion of this piece. But its implication is simple:

People don’t listen to what they don’t understand.

You’ve posted social media and marketing content before that just hasn’t worked. Everyone has. And that’s ok.

They just don’t understand you yet.

In order to teach my students about the vocabulary they didn’t know, I had to teach them through words they did.

The same goes for you. You have to meet your people where they are at instead of trying to get them to be where you are. “Embodiment”, “sensuality”, “somatic”, “codes”, “downloads”… you’re speaking at a 12th grade level to 6th graders.

Hear me: this does not mean you stop talking about it. This is actually why you should never shut up about what you do.

You have to say it 30 different ways until you find what sticks and they think about you when the thing you do comes up in their life. If they aren’t sick about hearing you talk about what you do, they haven’t heard it enough.

My students got tired of hearing me yap about vocab. But after 180 days of hearing it… they couldn’t help but speak differently.

If you’re teaching embodiment, you have to speak to a body that doesn’t understand what that means. Describe embodiment like no one but you has ever said that word before, and then say it again and again until everyone who comes across your page knows what it means.

I, personally, love speaking like Edgar Allen Poe, but that’s not going to be content that converts; that’s not going to be a message that gets someone to buy your course or retreat. That’s not going to fill your event.

What will convert and fill events is talking to sixth graders even though you want to teach Senior English.

However:

The ultimate key is just never shut up about it. Even if you do post something that people don’t get yet, that doesn’t mean you stop. It just means you reflect and try something different next time.

Nary shall you cease the prattling.

Never shut up.

Never.