Some of you are not going to like this next soundbite element, cliches. That's right. Now when you're giving a speech, if you use cliches, people will think you're stupid and original and thought it sounds clunky. But when you're talking to a reporter, it's not your speech. It's not your article. It's not your whole story.
So if you're quoted, the cliche is one little piece of the whole store. It's like a little bit of spice. If you put nothing but spice in a stew, it's gonna taste awful, but a little bit can make it fine. Why do people use cliches, they're simply more memorable than stating something in a straightforward way. Now, often cliches have other soundbite elements. analogies, may be humor examples, but a cliche can be a great way of getting a reporter to quote you, make them see it, visualize it, relate to it, the reporter can so can the audience.
So I realized some of you may think, well, I'm afraid I'm gonna look stupid if I use a cliche. You got to figure out what your main objective is here. Are you trying to sell yourself as a great speaker, a great writer, or do you want to get your message across if you don't want to use cliches, you don't have to, but they can work. For example, one of my first jobs This is 30 years ago, I was in Florida was a press spokesperson for the Florida Department of banking and finance. So the politician I worked for was in charge of shutting down boiler room operations. People who illegally sold fraudulent oil wells.
So his message to consumers and voters was if somebody calls you up at noon, or dinnertime and says, buy my oil wells. For $5,000 send it to me, I'll double your money in six weeks. Chances are that's an illegally registered securities offering don't buy that was the message. That's not a soundbite. What was the soundbite? Remember, citizens If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is a simple cliche.
But it perfectly encapsulated the message. And it got the job done. He was quoted every two months in major television, newspaper media outlets throughout the giant state of Florida, quoted every two months for 20 years in office using that cliche. So if it ain't broke, don't fix it.