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Welcome to Trendy Words, the podcast about words and phrases that are popular in business and marketing, but are often misleading, meaningless, or outright bullshit. We talk about these words and what we could be writing or saying instead that is more effective.
00:01.20
Andrew Monro
Welcome to Trendy Words, the podcast about meaningless, misleading, nonsense words we use in business marketing and what we can do about them. My name is Andrew, copywriter and grammatical malcontent, and our phrase for this episode is elevate.
00:18.97
Andrew Monro
And I'm joined today by my guest, Olga Pope. Hi, Olga.
00:22.70
Olga
Hi Andrew, how are
00:23.94
Andrew Monro
I'm doing really great. It's really great to see you. So I've known Olga for... years now.
00:33.72
Olga
Probably about three years.
00:35.23
Andrew Monro
About three years? Yeah, it feels longer. Yes, it feels so like there was other copywriters and beers and somewhere in London. but
00:45.29
Olga
That's exactly how it started.
00:46.73
Andrew Monro
That's exactly how it started. So for people that maybe don't know who you are, would you maybe like to share a bit about yourself?
00:53.47
Olga
Yes, of course. I'm a creative director. My background is in linguistics and graphic design, but I'm genetically predisposed to writing, so I guess words found me. and So that's what I specialize in. And I'm Arctic-born, London-trained, and currently New York-based as of 2025.
01:10.31
Olga
two thousand and twenty five And I have spent most of my career in big agencies like AMV, BBDO, Mother, Uncommon, and CBWA in London, and then went for solo and independent. So that's what I'm doing now, but it might change again soon.
01:29.77
Andrew Monro
Yeah. Cool. So Olga, why is elevate so stupid?
01:40.20
Olga
Elevate is stupid and so annoying because it manages to be both vague and wanky at the same time. It's just such a lazy word. And I think it happens when somebody says,
01:52.85
Olga
and I need to say better, but I'm afraid that somebody will think that I didn't go to uni or I don't know, don't have a large vocabulary or i I'm not a proper writer.
02:03.51
Olga
And so instead of saying better or something similar, we say elevated. And I think it's the verbal equivalent of when a client looks at a really nicely designed, let's say business card that is clean and crisp and it's just black on white.
02:20.63
Olga
And it says, but where's the design? So I think that so elevated or elevate is the verbal equivalent or copy equivalent of that.
02:31.50
Andrew Monro
You remind me of somebody that it said something about a director that they used to work under, which I said something along the lines of, I want it to look designed, add drop shadow to the text.
02:42.80
Andrew Monro
And I think that that that's, that's probably the closest like design equivalent to, yeah.
02:48.01
Olga
I love that. That's exactly it.
02:48.96
Andrew Monro
yeah
02:49.49
Olga
it's It's that. It's like how to say nothing whilst saying words. I walked past a billboard here in New York recently, which said, elevate your wellness.
02:53.83
Andrew Monro
Yeah.
02:59.15
Olga
And I thought, wow, you just said three words and not even short ones. Elevate is four syllables. Elevate is three.
03:05.53
Andrew Monro
Hmm.
03:06.54
Olga
And what does that mean?
03:06.82
Andrew Monro
Yes.
03:07.70
Olga
What is elevate your wellness? I think it was a CBD store. Oh, and do you want to guess what the visual was for that? Elevate your wellness. Or was it...
03:16.91
Olga
come
03:17.77
Andrew Monro
If it was a CBT store, is it going to be a marijuana leaf?
03:18.37
Olga
Yeah.
03:23.94
Olga
It's more, it's more tightly linked to the copy because they were really trying.
03:29.16
Andrew Monro
Is it a mountain?
03:31.79
Olga
Close, getting closer.
03:33.35
Andrew Monro
Okay.
03:33.42
Olga
It was somebody levitating.
03:35.70
Andrew Monro
Oh, of course.
03:36.45
Olga
Wow.
03:37.28
Andrew Monro
but that's That's exactly what I expect when when I'm taking any product involving CBT, of course. Of course. Makes perfect sense.
03:44.38
Olga
Exactly. Yeah, and actually I looked for it today on Google and I found elevate your work life. Also CBD, by the way, but a different one because that word is everywhere, especially in America.
03:53.02
Andrew Monro
Mm-hmm.
03:55.75
Olga
And they elevate your business, what elevate your work life featured a woman with a note notebook. la Sorry. It was a woman with a laptop levitating above a park bench.
04:08.34
Andrew Monro
That sounds like probably an ad for Asana. If I had to guess. Or Trello.
04:14.32
Olga
It could be, but this was CBD as well, because CBD stores are everywhere in America. Well, in New York, actually, not not all of America.
04:19.72
Andrew Monro
In New York, yes.
04:20.95
Olga
Yes.
04:21.25
Andrew Monro
they're they're It's not legal everywhere in the States. It's legal everywhere in Canada. Yeah, yeah.
04:26.36
Olga
I didn't realize that. OK, so here it is. mean, New York it is. Yes. And so elevated is a bit like saying premium, which is also not a great word.
04:37.71
Olga
And without explaining how or why.
04:41.16
Andrew Monro
Yeah, it it's meant to sound, as you said before with the design, it's sort of it sounds like a pretty word, but it doesn't actually mean anything, at least in this context.
04:50.79
Olga
No, and I mean, it's Latin, so it sounds like it's a smart big word, but it really is pretty useless. but To be honest, you know, I say I hate it and I do, but also I kind of love it because it's useful. And the reason I say it's useful and I love it is because it is such a great red flag, I'd say, because when I see a brand use it, to me that says,
05:15.33
Olga
We charge a lot, but we don't spend a lot on marketing or writing. We don't pay out right as well. So we hire writers who use elevate and elevated, or we use good writers who don't, but we then tell them to use it because we don't understand what good writing is. Uh, and equally, if I see somebody's portfolio, if I let's say i'm hiring and I see a copywriter's portfolio that uses the word elevate in the work they chose to show, I'm not gonna hire that person. I'm sorry.
05:43.97
Olga
And also I hope I don't alienate too many of my friends because I'm pretty sure I have at least two acquaintances or friends who use that word in their own marketing, but maybe they won't listen to this. Who knows?
05:56.19
Andrew Monro
It sort of speaks to a problem of the the business is trying to make a promise that things will be better, but is essentially not either unable or or unwilling to define what that better is.
06:12.26
Olga
Exactly. And better itself is not a great word because it also is overused and quite vague, but at least it's a simple word of just two syllables, whereas elevated is for, and it's like better with with a side of w
06:19.38
Andrew Monro
Mm-hmm.
06:29.58
Andrew Monro
Yes, because it has a, there's an interesting phenomenon in in linguistics, and you probably know this probably even better than i do, about how in modern English, particularly in British English, we tend to talk,
06:47.20
Andrew Monro
when we want to sound fancy, we often tend to lean on words that are originally derived from French or Latin. And when we talk about common everyday words, they more often than not have a linguistic origin in Germanic languages.
07:03.49
Olga
Yes, that is correct.
07:04.52
Andrew Monro
Yeah. So we talk about elevation instead of, what would be, trying to think about Germanic hi Yes.
07:13.10
Olga
Yes.
07:13.34
Andrew Monro
Yeah.
07:14.46
Olga
Yeah.
07:15.21
Andrew Monro
Yeah.
07:15.60
Olga
Well, up the word up.
07:15.65
Andrew Monro
Yeah. good but word Word up. Yeah, there we go.
07:19.03
Olga
Like up up your game instead of elevate your game.
07:21.98
Andrew Monro
Yes. Or speak instead of articulate or in things like that.
07:25.47
Olga
Wow. Yes, I haven't.
07:26.49
Andrew Monro
Yes. Yeah.
07:27.17
Olga
Yeah.
07:28.00
Andrew Monro
Yeah.
07:28.33
Olga
it's funny It's funny, I can even imagine the tone it goes with, you know, when you read it out loud. you imagine it being an advert, you know exactly what that sounds like. It's going to be elevate, isn't it?
07:40.13
Andrew Monro
Yes. It's that it's that that that soft voice from those ridiculous Bentley commercials where the it's the woman tapping on the steering wheel and just going, Bentley. And it's just, oh.
07:51.02
Olga
I need to see that. I haven't seen those. I was thinking about M&S. This is not just food. This is M&S food.
07:55.31
Andrew Monro
Yes, it's M&S food. Yes, exactly. yeah But yeah, the the Bentley one is one that gets roundly mocked online because it's so just over the top. It's like, it's it's very memeable.
08:07.58
Olga
You'll have to show me that.
08:08.85
Andrew Monro
yeah. Okay. all right. We'll do that during the break, but yes. So, where do you find that more, most often that agencies and clients, uh, stumble on this? Like, what do you find is the, like how, when you note that it's a red flag, how do you maybe begin to sort of call out the fact that that is a problem?
08:36.91
Olga
If I understand the question correctly, i think there there are categories where this word appears more often than not. And that's usually things like lifestyle, sometimes travel, which I guess is a similar thing.
08:51.29
Olga
Things like wellness. So makeup, cosmetics, wellness, travel, those types of things. And I wouldn't say I see it so much in big agencies, at least that maybe it wasn't such a trendy word.
09:07.49
Olga
back when I was at AMV BBDO, but I see it in the wild all the time, both online and offline, and it drives me nuts.
09:17.37
Andrew Monro
I'd say that like Elevate and things like it or like Enhance or or Improve or all kind of, they're all things that in the B2B work that I tend to do is usually based around productivity software, which is why my guess is immediately think of like, that's probably an Asana ad because it is kind of the, the,
09:41.96
Andrew Monro
vague, relatively undefined nature of software that's supposed to help you organize things. But most of the companies aren't specific enough about exactly how clients do because their platforms are sort of open forums for every single client and they don't have a narrowly defined use case.
10:06.63
Olga
Yes, I see what you mean and why that would happen. I think I mainly see it in the wild, not used by tech companies. But in America, they really do love those words, like enhance and elevate.
10:22.29
Olga
They just really love big words. I'm not sure what it is. I see it more often now than in the UK. Maybe I should move back.
10:29.06
Andrew Monro
Yeah. I mean, like, yeah, for me, having, i guess, sort of worked on both sides, much like yourself, I find that like, it's about, it's about equal. The only thing i would say is that usually when a word catches on in terms of popularity or being in vogue in marketing.
10:47.85
Andrew Monro
I noticed that North American firms, are both Canadian and Americans, tend to all bandwagon themselves much more readily than British and European clients do, who maybe don't sort of they don't leap on the latest word quite as rapidly.
11:03.49
Olga
Yes, I think you're right and that's how you end up with 15 different billboards for 15 brands using the same, not even just the same word, but the same phrase like elevate your game, I think I found at least 25 examples on the first Google results page.
11:16.52
Andrew Monro
yeah
11:18.79
Andrew Monro
Yeah. And that also kind of like it very much kills differentiation because it means that if I stripped the brand colors and the logo away and swap the names around, you'd never be able to tell any of the products apart based based on their messaging.
11:31.69
Olga
Precisely it's just. Exactly. It's just people see it and they don't see it at all. So if I try to remember now, the last 10 times I've seen it in the wild, I probably won't because because I you just walk past that you you you see words, you see some kind of shapes, but you don't remember that you don't even remember what the brand was because it says nothing. It's a waste of of breath. It's a waste of pixels and ink
11:59.80
Andrew Monro
And it doesn't make you memorable. it there There's no lasting impact upon the from the message.
12:06.54
Olga
No, it's just lazy. And it, well, obviously we see the world slightly differently being in marketing, but I'm pretty sure that, you know, muggles don't exactly think, wow, they promised to elevate my wellness. Well, this has to be good.
12:21.22
Andrew Monro
Yeah. And I think that that also sort of really nails on the the other problem that using this language does is it's not actually language that people use in everyday life. Nobody wakes up in the morning and thinking like, I'm going to elevate my productivity this today as they get up and have their first cup of coffee.
12:40.17
Andrew Monro
Nobody does that.
12:41.62
Olga
You're so right about this. This word doesn't pass the one of the best tests for writing that I usually tell people about, which is read your stuff out loud. And if you wouldn't, if it doesn't sound like something you would ever say to a friend, just cut it out, just change it.
12:58.43
Olga
And nobody, I don't think anybody has ever said the word elevate to me, you know, outside of the context of mocking it. In fact, a colleague of mine at my last agency had this Google Slides deck, which was called which was called Olga's Most Hated.
13:14.03
Olga
And that was a collection of words and phrases that she knew i absolutely despised that would make my skin crawl.
13:19.74
Andrew Monro
Paul.
13:21.54
Olga
And i realized later that I would actually, it wasn't wise of me to contribute and to tell her those words because I was giving the whole agency some heavy weapons against me that I could use anytime.
13:33.58
Olga
And every word was in a, She chose a horrible font for each word, different fonts, typefaces, I should say, and also a horrible, the most horrible color combos too.
13:43.93
Olga
And so I think elevate was on page two.
13:46.97
Andrew Monro
Yeah, I can believe that. This is why we end up working for ourselves.
13:51.79
Olga
Pretty too much.
13:52.01
Andrew Monro
And then then then then that becomes LinkedIn content, being like, if you have a problem with any of these words, then you need to move along.
13:52.39
Olga
Yes.
13:57.81
Andrew Monro
You're not my client. Yeah.
14:00.47
Olga
I've been lucky because none of my clients have ever used that or asked for it, luckily.
14:04.71
Andrew Monro
Yeah, well, I think at this point, then they they already know well ahead of hiring you that like they need to get away from that way of speaking.
14:14.03
Olga
i think I think the word bullshit on my website, which I'm pretty sure is somewhere the top. I think that's, yeah, I think that filters out the wrong people.
--- BREAK ---
00:00.74
Andrew Monro
All right, we had a quick break. I've shown Olga the Bentley ASMR ad. So that's now known thing. We would also like to issue a correction. Olga's website does in fact say, what the fuck, and not bullshit, as we previously talked about in the first half of the podcast.
00:18.21
Olga
Luckily that also works to filter out the wrong crowd. I think I said, I say it three times on the front, on the, the, uh, the homepage.
00:22.18
Andrew Monro
Yeah.
00:28.02
Andrew Monro
Right. I will be make a point of linking this in the show notes so that everyone else can look at. I think it's a great website. I think you've done a lot of really creative things with that. And it's rare to see, especially copywriter portfolio websites that are that interesting to look at. Mm
00:44.11
Olga
Thank you. Thank you. think that's to do with my degree in design, although I'm not super happy with how it looks, but it must be that.
00:51.26
Andrew Monro
hmm. So one of the things that we sort of talked about both on and off recording was before talking about in English when we want to use fancy words, how we tend to lean on things that are French and Latin rooted.
01:08.25
Andrew Monro
And figured like starting off about like addressing the issue of use of of elevate and words like it comes from a realization that often people's higher education has taught them that they should be using these these longer and more complex words because that served you really well in academia and in other areas of business. But in marketing, it tends to work against you.
01:37.66
Olga
Exactly. And maybe that's why most copywriters I know, the good ones, are actually not university educated, or rather they they studied something like marine biology and not English.
01:50.83
Andrew Monro
I studied politics. I had to unlearn that. The first years of copywriting was unlearning all of, though they were there were they weren't really bad habits at the time, but they became bad habits.
02:03.62
Andrew Monro
Once I got into this line of work of having to realize that I can't, you can't get away with, use that same language that worked really well for you in university and expect that to work really well in the world of business.
02:16.37
Olga
Well, exactly. a Unless your audience is professors for the brand that you're working with.
02:19.70
Andrew Monro
Yeah. Yeah. And I don't actually know any copywriters that work in academia.
02:25.94
Olga
No, same here. And also, I think professors in their private lives don't need to see those words all the time either.
02:32.24
Andrew Monro
Yeah. Well, and there's an award out there for i think writing the most overly, voteper like unnecessarily verbose sentences in academia. Yeah.
02:44.86
Olga
I need to check that out.
02:44.92
Andrew Monro
yeah Yeah. yeah but But it really speaks to like even academia realizes that I think to an extent that people realize that using overly complex language mostly works to alienate people, which is works against marketing and marketing. We don't alienate. We want to include, we want to draw in people rather than drive them away most of the time.
03:08.90
Olga
Most of the time we do, yes, except when we want to do what I do with my own copy.
03:14.05
Andrew Monro
Yeah. If you, but yeah.
03:15.70
Olga
alienate the, the, the people I don't want to work with who will not like working with me.
03:17.71
Andrew Monro
Yeah. If, if what the fuck bothers you, Olga is not the copywriter for you.
03:23.42
Olga
No, she fucking isn't.
03:28.46
Andrew Monro
When it comes to working with the clients then in terms of helping them sort of re like rethink their mindset about their messaging, where do you begin?
03:41.34
Olga
I think if the client is asking for, he's asking you to elevate your copy and to include that word, I think the first thing I do is to show them just Google that word, Google something like elevate your in quotation marks and show them the image results or just any results and see how many, how many billboards, how many ads there are with the same slogans that mean nothing. And just explain to them that you really are wasting your ad space.
04:11.89
Olga
Because people will not remember you will not know how you different will not understand what the benefit is, because you're not telling them how you better or why you better. You just saying, you know, it's going to be, I don't know, better experience than normal.
04:27.82
Andrew Monro
Yeah.
04:27.94
Olga
And by the way, the word experience itself is also, you know, if you say elevate your experience, that's just nothing says creative bankruptcy, like elevated experience.
04:35.09
Andrew Monro
Yeah. you It means that you don't really know why. it Well, amongst other things, and this is the thing that I find in my work is that it speaks to the company not understanding what the customer likes about them, which is a wild thing to think about being like, surely the one of the first things that you should find out when you come into any kind of business success is figuring out, well, why do people like working with me?
05:00.44
Olga
Yes, I think it happens when there is no strategy in place, or when, well, people are just lazy and don't understand how it works and don't want to understand how it works, which I think a business should at least try to do.
05:12.88
Olga
Here I'm talking about smaller businesses, I guess, who don't have a CMO, for instance.
05:15.31
Andrew Monro
Mm.
05:17.50
Olga
So I think after, once you've explained that it really is a waste of ink, pixels, money, etc.
05:24.22
Andrew Monro
Mm.
05:24.66
Olga
You start explain what you could say instead. And the main thing you want to do really is give them some concrete reasons or emotions or basically just say something that says something which elevate as we've established does not.
05:41.14
Olga
For instance, if it if we're talking about elevating your wellness, what would be a different way of saying that thing that they're trying to say? What are they actually trying to say by saying elevate your wellness? Is it about spending more me time? Is it about spending more money on your me time? Is it about using better ingredients?
06:03.25
Olga
Why should they do that? What happens when they do that? Or what happens if they don't? What happens if your audience sticks with their current mediocre wellness routines?
06:14.84
Olga
So that's where you start to unravel what you're actually trying to say why people should go into the store or buy your product. And that's a much more fruitful territory for what you could be saying instead of elevate your bloody wellness.
06:27.80
Andrew Monro
We started with a discussion about CBT products. And to be honest, the first thing that popped into my head, because I've known a few people that take them, they're really good for apparently dealing with headaches and migraines, which seems like a much more viscerally emotional experience than elevating your wellness.
06:47.23
Olga
Yes, and if your adip is somewhere that's more targeted, you could do that. so if you just decide to target people who suffer from headaches and migraines, you could do that. If you're just doing it for kind of lifestyle, general wellness, again, I don't like the word wellness much, but let's use it as shorthand for now.
07:04.41
Olga
I think there are much more interesting territories to go to rather than talking about elevating your wellness. And sometimes, by the way, if it's if it's a visual thing, if it's a billboard, sometimes you don't need words at all, or you don't need those words.
07:18.64
Olga
And you definitely don't need to say and show it at the same time, like the the levitating girl with with a laptop in the park.
07:28.00
Andrew Monro
Yeah, it's sometimes more powerful image or a more useful image, if it's done well, means that the actual need for actual copy is minimal.
07:40.93
Olga
Precisely. So if we look at something like Uncommons work for British Airways, I'm talking specifically about, i think it was 2024. It was the business class billboards that they did, which showed that you get a private pod.
07:56.42
Olga
They were just really nice visuals. The visuals were, dare I say, elevated. do not dare say that. But the visuals were very nicely done. They were not cheap at all. They did not look cheap.
08:09.89
Olga
And the copy was playful and fun. There were quite a few phrases there. I think it was something like... here when you need us just over there when you don't.
08:19.73
Andrew Monro
Mm-hmm.
08:20.98
Olga
And they could have said, elevate your flight experience, which would not have done what they actually did. And so they, they did the elevated part, the premium part through the way they did the visuals.
08:33.55
Olga
And then they could spend their words on something that actually has meaning.
08:38.61
Andrew Monro
Yeah. And you know that like the moment that you think like elevate your experience is totally something that are highly corporatized airline marketing department is something that you could see them doing. At least in our light of work.
08:50.42
Olga
If they don't have a good day, if they don't have a good agency, yes, it could happen.
08:52.00
Andrew Monro
Yeah.
08:54.77
Andrew Monro
Yeah.
08:55.05
Olga
But I don't, see I don't usually see those big brands do that probably because they do have CMOs who know their stuff and who do hire better agencies.
09:02.75
Andrew Monro
Hmm.
09:05.52
Andrew Monro
Yeah, and know little bit better. Well, I noticed that this also speaks to I think, the the current trending ads that British Airways does of the the logo reflected in the engine nacelle, which, as far as I can tell, none of those ads actually have any major use of copy at all.
09:22.64
Andrew Monro
They're meant to use all visual.
09:25.15
Olga
Exactly. Yes. And there was also one more that showed the the windows, right? I think that was two years ago.
09:32.22
Andrew Monro
Yep.
09:32.47
Olga
Just people flying over the city.
09:34.56
Andrew Monro
Yeah. And yeah. And it's sort of like when it's that well done and and that well composed, you don't really need to say anything. Yeah.
09:43.59
Olga
Exactly.
09:44.44
Andrew Monro
no
09:45.31
Olga
Fewer words. can't believe that copyright is saying that. Don't use words.
09:49.84
Andrew Monro
I feel like that that's always a surprising thing when you're dealing with people that have never worked with a copywriter for the first time. The fact that so much of the time we are championing fewer words, not more.
10:01.27
Olga
Well, it's the same thing we're talking about, right? Don't use so many syllables. You don't need four syllables if you can use two for the same with the same effect. Don't say elevated when you can say better.
10:14.74
Olga
Shorter words, fewer words, and sometimes no words at all.
10:19.13
Andrew Monro
Yeah. And where possible, talk to real experiences rather than something amorphous or undefined. Like elevating your wellness is so, doesn't have any real ties to actual reality, which whereas if you'd said then like,
10:38.94
Andrew Monro
the best cure for head for that pain in your head, that has so much more sort of potential in terms of speaking to a real experience of your customer.
10:50.69
Olga
Exactly. So I would pick either a specific benefit or a problem you're solving. And I would go into detail and I mean, colorful detail about what they're really getting. And that could be visual, could be verbal.
11:02.92
Olga
Let's say we're talking about elevating your, I don't know, your flight experience. Again, you're flying better, fly better instead of elevate your flight experience. But again, fly better might be a sign up. It might be a tagline, not the headline. Let's say we are showing This is just me brainstorming out loud, brainstorming out loud live.
11:23.55
Olga
Let's say we show really nicely done breakfast, a flight in flight breakfast, which is not usually glamorous, but this one is. So it looks absolutely stunning and it looks like it's in a private pod and it's nicely shot.
11:36.53
Olga
And let's say the line says something like all of this, all to yourself or something like this. This is just, you know, this is a bit crap, but that says more in in shorter words than if you had that image and elevate your flying experience.
11:49.76
Andrew Monro
Yep.
11:55.69
Andrew Monro
Because it gets right to the heart of what it is actually like to fly. Is it business class with British Airways?
12:02.81
Olga
Yeah.
12:03.29
Andrew Monro
Yeah. Yeah.
12:05.36
Olga
Exactly. And it it creates some sort of an emotion and also it doesn't alienate because it doesn't use those words. Fun fact, there is a billboard or there was a billboard the my favorite airport, which is London City Airport, which actually says fly away from the hoi polloi, which I just find shocking, but that's what it says.
12:26.34
Olga
Anyway, even the hoi polloi will not be put off by you saying all of this all to yourself, because they are short, simple words we all know.
12:34.87
Andrew Monro
Right. Although I don't think I've seen Hoi Ploi used in copy in living memory, but that might be just me.
12:39.98
Olga
That was the only time. That was the only time I've seen it.
12:41.37
Andrew Monro
Yeah.
12:42.35
Olga
I was shocked. I thought it was so...
12:43.37
Andrew Monro
Yeah, that that is really surprising.
12:46.90
Olga
It's quite rude, I think.
12:48.86
Andrew Monro
but Yeah. So, and then one other thing, I guess, to maybe get into on that, because one of the the often, the things that we often cope with as creatives is that when you want to focus in on a singular experience, the the really common pushback is that like, but what about this or this or the five or six other use cases that the company has, knows about internally, and that they're terribly worried about if they focus on one, people will forget about the other five.
13:21.36
Olga
Well, then we need a tagline. But again, i would say that using elevate and in a tagline is even worse.
13:28.94
Andrew Monro
Because it doesn't really speak to any of those use cases.
13:32.30
Olga
Well, no, because it just, as we've established, it says nothing at all. It's just classic.
13:39.14
Andrew Monro
Yeah. And then better. So the task then is to really try to find something much more specific that actually sort of captures the energy of what you're trying to do and not worry so much about, oh, do we have do we have all our bases covered?
13:55.54
Olga
Precisely, yes. You want to find something that ties together the overall benefit or experience or whatever it is you're selling. And I think the problem here is actually a slightly different problem, a much bigger one. We are running out of words.
14:08.17
Olga
This is legit. This is happening. So many words and word combos have been used and used well, and they're famous enough that you can't do it again. If you came up with something like just make it, people would instantly say, oh yeah, you're just trying to be Nike.
14:23.47
Olga
And so we don't really have an abundance of, why did I use the word abundance? It's too long, right? We don't have too many of those good, short, simple words that have not been put together by some writer somewhere and used by brand.
14:28.71
Andrew Monro
Yeah.
14:37.93
Olga
So we do have to come up with new ways of saying things while still using simple words. Sometimes we use broken grammar. Find you better was it was the tagline for, i think, a real estate website and in the UK.
14:52.65
Olga
Rightmove, it was, right? Rightmove, it said, find your best.
14:54.59
Andrew Monro
yeah
14:55.04
Olga
So technically not correct grammar, but it worked. And so, yes, that we're running out of words is a real problem, but elevate is not the solution.
15:05.51
Andrew Monro
Hmm. Olga, if people wanted to get in touch with you and find out more about you, where do they go?
15:14.09
Olga
They could go to olgopope.com. Is that right? Yes, it is.
15:20.82
Andrew Monro
I think so.
15:20.93
Olga
And they could they could find me on LinkedIn if they so wish. I think I use the word bullshit on LinkedIn and what the fuck on my website. So either way, if you write if you're offended by that, I'm sorry. I'm i'm not really, but I'm sorry, but we probably won't work together.
15:40.50
Andrew Monro
Cool. Well, thank you very much, Holka. And thank you.
15:43.04
Olga
Thank you for having me.
15:44.08
Andrew Monro
Oh, no worries. And thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this podcast, I would really appreciate it if you gave a like, a subscribe, or a comment just to let me know what you liked or didn't like about this episode.
15:58.11
Andrew Monro
If you feel particularly motivated, you can contact me on LinkedIn at agmonroe and or you can send me an email at andrew at andrewmonroe.com.
16:09.39
Andrew Monro
See you in the next episode. Bye!