You remember things you can visualize. If you’re worried the people listening will stare at you like you’ve got four eyes, include a word or sentence they can picture. A complex idea becomes simple when you can see it.

The posts that resonate with people are the ones that have a visual. Not visual as in images, visual words. I looked back at my old posts. The ones that hit had something familiar there to help bridge the gap.

I have talked about aliens invading, ants carrying a leaf to a colony, putting makeup on a pig, telephone numbers, and my favorite, tonic immobility in sharks. Those things have nothing to do with football, but when I anchor something foreign to something familiar, it helps it click in the reader’s mind.

It doesn’t have to be an analogy. Throwing in descriptive words with purpose changes the way your idea is perceived.

This interview with copywriting expert Harry Dry changed the way I communicate. Every sentence out of his mouth carries a visual element. His three rules are “Can I visualize it? Can I falsify it? Can nobody else say this?” If you can’t answer yes to those three questions, you are producing rubbish. If you answer yes to all three of those questions, you have a winner. The concept of visualization in speech and text is eye opening.

You begin to see that successful people rely on imagery in their speech and writing. Find successful people and copy their process. Don’t steal their ideas, copy their process.

If it can work in marketing, it can work in football. Getting people to buy in to a plan or idea is a huge part of coaching. We’re selling our concepts, our plan, our instructions.

Football is complex — describing it simply is difficult. It is easier to keep things complex. It is a global sport. Football transcends language. People that play it or watch it speak different languages. There is a lot of verbiage and terms that people don’t understand. It is worth it to make it simple because simple ideas spread. Simple ideas are more memorable. Creating a mental picture in your writing and speech makes those ideas easier to grasp.

I don’t have writers block because I write like I talk. No one gets talkers block, you can do this too. But this way of talking with visuals challenges me. It takes time to research and then recall past references.

This is why it is important to have interests outside of football—history, art, music, even animals—to shape those descriptive details.