Become Bold

Your brand needs a quotable leader. Here is some January inspiration on how to be bold and memorable.

The first weeks of January are the perfect time to create some hot takes for what you think will happen in 2024. To create a lasting hot take, it should be bold, oppose the conventional wisdom, and make an impact.

The easiest way to do that is to “newsjack” – or steal from what is already making headlines and grabbing people’s attention. 

Find Inspiration in the Dictionary

Start with the dictionary. All the major dictionaries publish the words of the year (WotY) based on language experts and word usage. According to Oxford, it’s WotY “is a word or expression that has attracted a great deal of interest over the last 12 months. Every year, we debate candidates for word of the year and choose a winner that is judged to reflect the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of that particular year and to have lasting potential as a word of cultural significance.”

Not surprisingly, at least to me since I have spent the last few years writing about artificial intelligence, Cambridge University’s WotY was the verb Hallucinate - and everything AI. I was a little surprised Generative AI specifically wasn’t mentioned. But don’t let that deter you. GenAI is big, so if that is your specialty, go for it.

Collins Dictionary WotY was the noun AI -  along with nine other words.

Merriam-Webster’s WoTY was Authentic, it offered a dozen more words that were in the news. Coronation, Deep Fake, Dystopian, Rizz, X, Covenant, EGOT, Implode, Indict, Deadname, Kibbutz, and Elemental were all words that entered our collective consciousness – although some were hits much earlier in the year. 

Rizz, a noun, was the winning word at Oxford, followed by the nouns Prompt, Situationship, and Swiftie. Three more nouns beige-flag, de-influencing, heat dome, and the adjective parasocial were also listed.

(Not up on Rizz? Actor Tom Holland used it in an interview, and said he had none!)

Marry the Word to Your Expertise

Okay, we have a list of words. Pick a couple that speak to you, and consider their many meanings. Now weave in your expertise and riff on it. And be bold – what is the conventional wisdom, can you offer up an intelligent and honest opposing view - as opposed to being a pedestrian troll.

If you are a data scientist, is 2024 the year deep fakes take over the world or is all of this concern just a hallucination going to go the way of Y2K?

(I used the word hallucination beyond the generative AI association for false information, but it’s perfect for wordplay. Because the other thing you want to do is create something catchy by being clever!)

If intellectual property is your jam, then what do you think of Prompts as being the next big asset to protect? Can that be a thing? Will you be forced to turn over all your prompts to your employer???

A culture warrior? Taylor Swift isn’t the only celeb to have followers. Who do you think the next big name will be – and what will their followers be called?

My Predictions for 2024

The word Authentic speaks to me. Brands will need to stress authenticity this year. And authenticity will be difficult to prove in a dystopian universe of hallucinations and deep fakes. With so much confusion and disinformation, brands should double down on transparency and credibility.

Quotable leaders can build authentic and lasting connections with their audiences by showing their own vulnerabilities. I have friends who are potters and when they hand dip their pieces in glaze, there are finger marks where they were holding the items. They view those “imperfections” as a true sign of authenticity.

Sharing the mistakes we have learned from or when we have had to overcome fear are “imperfections that can endear us to our audience. You go from know-it-all to relatable human being. You’ll be surprised at how sharing vulnerabilities will enhance your credibility.

My other prediction? You, the Quotable Leader, will find success by being bold, memorable, and timely.

And next year at this time, you can look at your predictions and authentically critique whether you were right or not!