Talk Is Cheap
If you’re looking for a way to stand out in today’s noisy world, there’s a really simple way to do so…
Do what you say you are going to do.
People love to talk about what they are going to do, who they are, or who they are going to become but rarely deliver upon the talk. They don’t fail to deliver because things didn’t work out, although this is the case sometimes. They fail to deliver because they never intended on actually doing what they said they were going to do…it was an empty promise made to create a fake persona, to obtain something in that moment, or to avoid conflict or disappointing someone.
And social media has only made this worse.
Scroll through Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter and you’ll see no shortage of experts, gurus, and individuals painting a picture of a life that is not real. They claim to want to help you get rich, live a life a glamorous life like the one you see on your feed, or some other promise to get you to buy a course, e-book, or subscription from them. Few of these experts will deliver upon their promises. Most are great marketers and storytellers.
Cheap talk is not just found on social media.
We see it in our day to day lives as well.
You call a business and are told you’ll receive a return phone call the next day. Three days go by and there’s no call. We’re not even surprised any more when we don’t receive the call—it’s expected we won’t.
NOT ALWAYS INTENTIONAL
Not everyone is intentionally failing to follow up on a commitment.
I know there have been times I’ve committed to getting an email out by the end of the day or calling someone back before lunch and I don’t get the email out until the next day or the call made until the evening.
Things come up, unexpected calls are received, or sometimes we just forget and for the most part people understand this and are pretty forgiving…the first couple of times. After that, our dependability becomes in question, trust suffers, and we run the risk of becoming someone who is expected to follow up later than we promised.
Our best intentions eventually won’t matter if we continuously don’t back them up with our actions. As DMX told us at the end of Ruff Ryder’s Anthem, “talk is cheap mutha…”.
I know I put myself at risk of overpromising and underdelivering frequently—part of it is my desire to make people happy and part of it is my overconfidence in my ability to get things done in a short amount of time. I’ve been mindful of this risk and have intentionally been working on setting reasonable expectations and accepting it’s not how quickly something gets done that “wows” the other person, it’s that it gets done when I say it will.
With the expectations having grown to be “we won’t get the call back by lunch time”, when we actually get that phone call by lunch time we are surprised…it’s memorable.
Give yourself grace and set reasonable expectations. Promising to call by lunch but not calling until the evening is a let down; promising to call by the evening and calling in the evening is meeting expectations and being memorable. The call is made at the same time but one is living up to the expectations set and the other, while made with good intentions, fails to meet expectations.
I want to be memorable because I do what I say I’m going to do and not become another person expected to not deliver upon my commitments.
The two most impactful actions I’ve taken to be focused on doing what I say I’m going to do have been:
Reducing the number of things I’m trying to do. There was a time I was spreading myself too thin and was either falling behind on commitments or crushing myself trying to get everything done. Less “things” has made it easier to deliver upon commitments.
Use a notebook. This seems like an obvious idea but it took me far too long to realize if I would slow down and give myself a few minutes after talking to someone to write down what I had committed to do I would be less likely to let them down by calling back later than I promised.
STAND OUT
If you’re looking to progress in your career, grow your business, or be a dependable person people know they can trust, just do what you say you’re going to do—and do it well. You will stand out amongst all of the “talkers” in the world.
“You are what you do, not what you say you'll do.”
-Carl Jung
See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,
JC
