June 16, 2026

The Jeremy Hanson Podcast -The Power of Words

Show Notes
Transcript

THE JEREMY HANSON PODCAST THE POWER OF WORDS —

What if the most powerful tool you own weighs nothing, costs nothing, and you've never once read the manual? In this episode of The Jeremy Hanson Podcast, Jeremy Hanson makes the case that words are the closest thing humanity has ever found to actual magic. They built every skyscraper, every nation, every business, every marriage, and every war long before a single brick was laid or a shot was fired. They are the invisible architecture underneath the visible world, and almost nobody is ever taught how to hold them.

Jeremy walks through the full mechanics of that power. How words create ideas, ideas create action, and action creates reality, with language as the first domino in the chain. Why every entrepreneur is secretly in the communication business, and why mediocre products with excellent communication beat brilliant products that nobody can explain. Then he flips the blade over and shows the dangerous edge: how the exact same skill that closes an honest deal can be used to dress up nonsense in a beautiful suit. He runs a live demonstration, reframing smoking, procrastination, negativity, struggle, and the seductive lie of never settling, and shows how each one sounds true for just long enough to slip past your guard.

The hardest turn comes when Jeremy points the lens inward. The person most likely to manipulate you with words is you. The quiet stories we repeat about ourselves, that we are bad with money, not leaders, too old, too young, not that kind of person, get installed early and rehearsed for decades until they stop feeling like opinions and start feeling like facts. From there he lays out the way out: words become beliefs, beliefs become actions, actions become results, and results become a life, which means the script can be rewritten one sentence at a time. He closes with a practical week-long challenge and a nightly correction drill to put it all into motion. This is classic Jeremy Hanson, Paul Harvey storytelling wrapped in modern humor and hard-edged entrepreneurial truth.

QUESTIONS THIS EPISODE ANSWERS

This episode explores why words may be the most powerful force a human being ever wields and how to start using yours on purpose. It asks what makes language the first domino in everything we build, and why nearly every great achievement starts as a sentence before it ever becomes a building, a business, or a movement. It looks at why communication, not product quality, is the real engine of a successful business, and why the clearest competitor often beats the most talented one. It examines the dangerous side of language, how persuasion and manipulation use the same tools, and how to tell the difference when something sounds a little too smooth. It digs into the stories we tell ourselves, how those stories get installed, why the brain treats them as instructions, and what it actually takes to rewrite the internal script. And it ends with a concrete practice for auditing the words you use and replacing the ones quietly building a prison.

KEYWORDS

power of words, the power of words, words matter, communication skills, persuasion, manipulation, self talk, mindset, entrepreneur mindset, Jeremy Hanson, The Jeremy Hanson Podcast, language and reality, how words shape reality, internal narrative, limiting beliefs, reframing, business communication, clarity in business, selling and communication, personal development, self improvement, positive self talk, rewrite your story, how to communicate better, the psychology of words, influence, public speaking, storytelling, mindset shift, overcoming limiting beliefs, entrepreneurship, small business, service business owners

ABOUT THE SHOW

The Jeremy Hanson Podcast is business, strategy, and mindset for people who actually build things. Hosted by Jeremy Hanson, a 20-plus year entrepreneur, syndicated broadcaster, and founder of multiple service businesses, the show cuts through the noise to give working people the frameworks, the math, and the mindset to build a life without waiting for permission. No theory. No hype. Just the stuff that works. New episodes are released regularly at jeremyhanson.pro.

CREDITS

Host and Executive Producer, Jeremy Hanson. Produced by Fuzzy Life Studios. Distributed by Fuzzy Life Entertainment. Show website, www.jeremyhanson.pro. Newsletter, Built Different, the place Jeremy sends the material that doesn't make it into the episodes. This episode is supported by Cash App, sign up with code CASHAPP10. This episode is also supported by OneSkin, use code HANSON at oneskin.co/HANSON.

Q, What is the main idea of this episode of The Jeremy Hanson Podcast? Answer, That words are the most powerful and least understood tool a person owns. They build everything we see, they can inspire or manipulate using the same skill, and the most important voice using them on you is your own.

Q, Why does Jeremy Hanson say entrepreneurs are in the communication business? Answer, Because people do not buy what you do, they buy what they understand. A clear message often beats a superior product, so the words around the offer matter as much as the offer itself.

Q, How can language be used to manipulate? Answer, By making an idea sound true rather than be true. Jeremy demonstrates this by reframing smoking, procrastination, negativity, struggle, and never settling so each one briefly sounds wise, even though nothing about the underlying truth changed.

Q, How do you defend yourself against manipulative language? Answer, Slow down and ask one question when something lands too smoothly, is this actually true or does it just sound true. Be especially careful with calm, polished delivery and with anything that demands an urgent yes.

Q, What does Jeremy mean by the prison you talk yourself into? Answer, We dress up our own avoidance in flattering language, calling fear protecting my peace or calling giving up being realistic. Those comfortable stories keep us stuck while feeling reasonable.

Q, What is the practical challenge at the end of the episode? Answer, For one week, notice your language, catch phrases like I have to and I can't, and each night replace one untrue sentence with a truer version said out loud, repeated for thirty days.

WEBVTT

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Somewhere right now, someone is about to say a sentence

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that's going to change a life, maybe their life, maybe

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your life. A doctor is standing outside a door and

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he's rehearsing how to deliver the news. Maybe it's a

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kid working up the nerve to ask for a job.

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Maybe it's a man sitting in a park car in

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the dark and he's practicing the words that are either

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going to end his marriage or save one. Now, none

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of them is holding a weapon, none of them are

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signing a check. They're just choosing words, and those few

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words are about to move more than any amount of

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money or muscle ever. Could we treat language like a

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background noise filler between the important things, the stuff that

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we barely listen to. But it isn't the filler. It's

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the operating system. It's the most powerful, at least understood

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tool that a human being will ever pick up, and

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almost nobody is taught how to use it. Today you are,

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so stay with me.

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Welcome to the Jermy Handsome.

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Boodcash the lightest thing that ever built anything. Welcome back

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to the Jeremy Hanson Podcast. Today we're talking about something

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that weighs absolutely nothing, costs almost nothing, and it can

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build empires, start wars, save marriages, bankrupt companies, inspire revolutions,

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and convince a grown man that buying a fifth project

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is somehow a sound financial decision. We're talking about words, words,

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tiny little sounds that come flying out of our faces. Oh,

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just listen and feel that for a second. You wake

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up in the morning, you haven't lifted anything, you haven't

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built anything. You haven't moved a single physical object at all,

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And by luck, you've made a friend. You started the fight,

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you closed the deal, you ended a friendship, You talked

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yourself out of the best idea that you ever had,

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all with sounds, air shaped by your mouth. And that's it.

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That's the whole technology. Every skyscraper you've ever seen started

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with words. Every nation, every religion, every business, every marriage,

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every divorce, every great idea or bad one, every war,

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all of it words. And yet somehow most people use

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them with the precision of a raccoon trying to operate

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a forklift. They fling them around all day, twenty thousand

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of them. Some studies say more, and they never stop

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to think about what they're actually building. See, we measure

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everything else, count our steps, and we count our calories,

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and we count the dollars down to the penny. But

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the most powerful tool that a human being owns, most

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people have no idea how to use. That's what today

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is about. It's about a manual of sorts. Because once

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you understand how words actually work, you stop being a

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passenger in your own life. You stop being the b

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actor and start being the A actor. You start being

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the writer holding the pen for your life. Now the

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invisible architecture. You know, words they're strange because you can't

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touch them. You can't weigh them, you can't put them

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in a wheelbarrow, you can't storm in a garage, you

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can't ensure them. But they can't alter the core of

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history and your history. Think about this. The Declaration of

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Independence words, the Constitution words, the Gettysburg addressed words, the

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phrase honey, we need to talk words. The one of

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those changed a nation. The other has terrified men for generations.

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And this is what I want you to think about.

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None of those documents had power because of the paper,

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because the paper was just paper. The power was in

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the arrangement of those words. Now, if you move a

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few of them around, the Constitution becomes a grocery list,

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same letters, same ink, different order, different world. And we

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do this with our own lives constantly, and we never

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notice it. No man loses his job, all I got fired.

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Another man loses the same job and says I got

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freed up. Same Tuesday, same empty desk, same scary drive home.

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But one of those men is already grieving and the

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other one is already scanning the horizon. Now, the event

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was identical, the architecture they built on top of it

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was not. That's the invisible part of doing the real work.

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We just don't see it because we're staring at the

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desk instead of the sentence. We treat buildings as the

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real thing and the words as the decoration, and I

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think we have it backwards. The building is the decoration.

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The words came first. Somebody had to say, you know what,

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we should build it here. Somebody had to say, well,

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you know what, I'm going to fund it. Somebody had

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to say I will do the work. All that happened

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before there was ever a house to even argue. In

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every solid thing that you can shake your knuckles on,

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it started as something that you couldn't touch at all.

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You see, language is the invisible architecture underneath the visible world,

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and until you learn it, you just walk around all

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day rearranging that architecture without realizing that you're holding the blueprints.

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The closest thing to magic. Words are very powerful. In fact,

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understanding words may be the closest thing that we have

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ever discovered to magic. And I'm not saying that because

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I'm trying to be cutesy. I mean it. Literally. Imagine

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trying to explain our civilization to a caveman. See that

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giant building. Yes, it started because somebody talked, what see

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that rocket? Somebody talked, this billion dollar company, somebody talked,

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the bridge got somebody talked. He'd look at you and

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think that you lost your mind, and he'd be right to,

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because from the outside it really does sound insane. Sounds

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come out of a person's face. And a few years later,

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there's a steel tower where there used to be a field. Okay,

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that's not construction, that's some voodoo magic spell. But let

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me show you this magic in real time. Are you ready?

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Do not think about a purple elephant wearing roller skates.

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Go ahead, don't do it. Oops, you are picturing it

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right now. The skates, the elephant, the trunk, maybe a

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little wobble in the back of the legs. It's allready there. Congratulations,

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I just installed software in your head. No batteries, no download,

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You didn't give me permission. I use six or seven words,

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and I reached straight into your imagination and I built

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something in your mind. That's what every great communicator is doing.

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And they're doing it all the time. They're not just talking,

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they're installing. And the scary part is, so is everybody else.

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The news and the ads, and your boss and your

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in laws, and even the voice in your own head.

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Everybody is installing software in everybody else, every single day.

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Most of them have no idea that they're even doing it. Now.

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I've been in situations myself where one word can make

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a difference. One word, especially in radio broadcasting, if you

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say the wrong word, it can completely flip what you're

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saying into something else. I've watched it. I've actually watched

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that ruined careers from people who are trying to say something,

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but they say the wrong word and that's it. It's over.

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So it's the first domino. So let's talk about how

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to spell what actually works, Because words create ideas and

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Ideas create action, and action creates reality. That's the chain.

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Words are the first domino. Everything else is just physics.

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After do you see what I'm saying? You say something

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and that becomes a thought. The thought becomes a decision,

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the decision becomes a behavior. The behavior, repeated enough time

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becomes life. And if you trace it all back, it

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all comes back to the first domino, the sentence. And

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the people who understand this best seem to walk around

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with a strange superpower. They can calm an angry crowd.

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They can motivate a team that was ready to quit.

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They can sell an idea that nobody even asks for.

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These people can raise money out of thin air. They

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can negotiate a deal that should have fallen apart. These

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people are the type of people that can start a

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movement with a single line. We look at people like

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that and we say, well, they're charismatic. We say, oh,

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they've got the gift, like some gift just fell out

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of the sky and landed on them. Okay, it didn't.

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They aren't controlling minds. They're controlling meaning. They've figured out

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that you don't have to move people with facts. You

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move people with the meaning that you wrap around the facts,

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same fact. Wrap it in fear, people freeze, you wrap

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it in hope. When people move, you wrap it in shame,

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people hide, you wrap it in pride, and people build.

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Here's one. A doctor can tell you you have a

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ninety percent survival rate, or that same doctor can tell

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you there's a ten percent chance that this kills you. Okay,

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identical math, identical truth. One sentence sends you home hopeful,

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the other one keeps you up at three in the morning. TikTok.

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You're just thinking about it. Nothing about your body change

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between those sentences. Nothing, only the words that a human

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being chose to wrap those numbers around. And that's the

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power sitting there the doctor in the hospital room. The

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fact never changed, only the wrapping of that fact, and

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that's the superpower. It's not reserved for the lucky few.

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It's a skill. And because it's the skill, it means

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that it's learnable, which means that it's available for you

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starting today. So you're not in the product business. Okay,

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let's explain this and pull it down so you can

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understand here. Wallet. Now, if you own a business, this

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next part is worth more than anything you'll hear in

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any fancy seminar. I promise you that most entrepreneurs, well,

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they believe that they're in the product business, and they're wrong.

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You are in the communication business. You can have the

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best lawn company in the country, the blessed plumbing company,

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the best podcast, the best restaurant, the best invention since

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the wheel. But if nobody understands it, nobody buys it.

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If nobody understands it, nobody buys it. People don't buy

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what you do, they buy what they understand. And those

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are two completely different things. That's why mediocre products with

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excellent communication beat great products with terrible communication. And it

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happens every single day, and it happens all day long,

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and it happens twice on Sunday. The graveyard of business

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is absolutely full of brilliant people who could not explain

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their brilliance. Smartest person in the room, best mouse trap

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on the shelf, and completely broken. Now, on the other

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side of that, there's some guy with a decent idea

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and exceptional communication skills, and he's driving a truck that

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costs more than the geniuses entire company. Now, it isn't fair,

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but it is true, and once you accept it, it

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kind of becomes one of the biggest advantages that you

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will ever have. Most of your competition is still obsessed

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with the product. They're polishing the mouse trap. Oh, you're

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going to work on the words. You know, the offer

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and the pitch and the story and the promise, the

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reason that somebody should care. You don't have to be

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the best in the industry. You have to be the

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clearest and why. Because clarity sells, confusion doesn't. So here's

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a that's that you can run this week. Take whatever

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it is that you sell, now explain it to a

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twelve year old. And I'm not talking about a dumbed

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down version. I'm talking about a very crystal clear one.

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If the twelve year old gets it, your customer will

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get it. If the twelve year old's eyes glaze over

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because you've been throwing whatever at it, and then like

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transforming that and saying, well, I know I didn't explain

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things clearly, but this is my expertise. That type of crap.

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Most businesses, folks don't have a quality problem, they have

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a translation problem. They're brilliant in a language that their

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customer just simply doesn't speak. You got to fix the

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translation and what field notice is that sales that felt

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impossible start to feel obvious. You didn't change a project product,

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you changed the words explaining that cradle. For years, I

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would go around and I would tell people about doing

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decks and why we were different. And it got to

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the point where I started noticing that the real technical

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stuff that I was telling them didn't matter to them.

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I've seen the glaze overlook in people's faces before while

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we hand sand for this, and this penetrates into your wood.

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And the reason that it penetrates into your wood and

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it keeps penetrating and we're using penetrol is so when

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it rains, it just keeps repelling that in the wood

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doesn't rot. Now, you could go into the scientific mode

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of that same statement, and they don't care. You can

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try to sound impressive, but if you just say, yeah,

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we put this on, it keeps penetrating. And the reason

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that we like to use this is because for years,

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as it rains, your wood don't rot. They love it

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because they understand it. That's what they want. You have

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just cured their problem. They don't need the technical jargon.

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Think about that. Now. Let me take a quick break

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here and honestly this one really does fit the theme.

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You know, one of the things I appreciate most in

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business and in life is simplicity. Sometimes you don't need

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another account number, another check to write, or another complicated process.

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You just need to move money quickly and keep on moving.

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I've used cash app in situations that just make sense

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in everyday life. I've sent one of my daughter's money

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when she needed it really quick, and I've even paid

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a traveling mechanic while I was on the road. In

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moments like that, convenience really does matter. You pull out

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your phone, send the money, and you're done, no hassle,

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no waiting around. That's why cash app has become one

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of those tools that simply fits into real life, whether

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you're splitting it expenses, helping family, or paying someone quickly

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when you're away from home. It's an easy way to

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send and receive money. Now, for a limited time, new

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customers can get ten dollars added to their balance. Just

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use code cash app ten when you signed up, and

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don't forget this part. Send at least five dollars to

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a friend in the first two weeks now terms apply.

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Cash app is a financial services platform, not a bank,

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banking services provided by cash Apps Bank Partner, Bitcoin services

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provided by Block Incorporated brand. For additional information, see the

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bitcoin disclosures at cash Dot App, Forward Slash Legal, Forward

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Slash Podcast. It's just one of those apps that's simply practical.

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When life happens and you need to move money quickly,

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having a tool that makes it easy makes all the difference. Now,

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the other edge of the blade. Okay, so far we've

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talked about words building things and empires and companies and

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bridges lives. But I got to be careful because I'd

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be lying to you if I stop there, because things

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can get dangerous with words. Words don't just have the

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power to inspire, they have the power to manipulate. And

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the same thing that builds a cathedral can also build

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a trap. The same skill that closes the honest deal

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can close the con A hammer can frame a house, right,

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but it can also be thrown through a window. The

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hammer doesn't care, and the thing is the words you

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choose don't care either. So we need to talk about

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the other edge of the blade. And to do that,

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I'm going to play a little game with you. I'm

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going to take some ideas that are just flat out

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wrong and I'm going to dress them up in language

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so nice. For just a second, you're going to nod along. Okay,

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now watch us watch what happens in your own hat.

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This is the lesson, not that I can fool you,

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but that anybody can if you don't know the trick works.

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And once you see the trick, you can't unsee it.

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That's the gift and the curse of today's episode. After this,

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you're going to start hearing it everywhere, in the ad,

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before the video, in the speech before the vote, in

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the pitch before the sale, in the apology that somehow

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ends up with you owing them. You'll catch the scenes

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in the suit if you know what I'm saying, and

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the people running the trick on autopilot will have no

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idea why it stopped working on you. And that's the upgrade.

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So let's install it trusting nonsense in a nice suit.

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All right, let's play. Imagine I stood up today, real

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serious and said smoking isn't a bad habit, it's a discipline.

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Every cigarette is a moment of reflection in a world

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moving faster every single day, Smokers are among the few

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people who still intentionally pause and they stop, and they

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think they reconnect with themselves. Sounds kind of smart, doesn't it.

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How about this? Throughout history, leaders, artists, military commanders, and

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visionaries all smoke. You see, it wasn't weakness, it was ritual.

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It was about focus. It was a signal to the

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brain that it was time to think. Some of you

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just went well, you know when you put it that way,

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except it's complete nonsense. Smoking kills people's The pause isn't healthy,

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The cigarette isn't helping your brain. The whole ritual is

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built around an addiction that wants you dead. You see,

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nothing changed about smoking, not one molecule. Only the words changed,

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and for a moment, some of you started seeing it

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a little bit differently. You see, that's power. That's the trick.

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Let's try another one. I believe that procrastination is dismisunderstood

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the world's greatest thinkers weren't rushing through life. What society

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calls procrastination is actually strategic incubation. Great ideas need time

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to mature. Wow, now that soundsphisticated. You could actually put

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that on a coffee mug. You could post it and

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get ten thousand likes by dinner. But let's be honest.

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With each other. Most procrastination is a strategic incubation. It's

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avoiding something that scares you. It's the dishes, it's the

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phone call, it's the hard conversation. Now again, the behavior

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didn't change, only the language got a makeover. Let's do another.

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Being negative is actually a sign of intelligence. Optimists a

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lot of times overlook danger. Pessimists see reality. The more

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flaws you identify, the smarter that you probably are. Now

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that one is dangerous because some people hear it and

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immediately feel validated. Finally, somebody said it, but it's mostly garbage.

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There's a difference between awareness and negativity. One of them

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solved problems, the other one just narrates them while everything burns.

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But because the words sounded intelligent, people will buy it.

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In the spot. Let's do one more. This one's everywhere

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right now, Okay, how about this. Success shouldn't require struggle.

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If something feels difficult, it probably isn't your purpose. Your

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true calling should feel effortless. Now that sounds beautiful. Put

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some ocean waves behind that one, a little bit of

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soft piano, maybe a sunset in the video boom, twenty

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million views, and it would still be garbage. Because everything

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worthwhile is difficult, building a business and raising kids, and

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building a healthy marriage, getting your physical health back, learning

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a real skill. Leading people who don't always want to

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be led. Difficulty is not evidence you're on the wrong path,

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At least most of the time, it's the only evidence

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you're moving at all. To be honest with you, so

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let's do let's do one more. That's a final one. Now,

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this one may be the most subeductive of them all.

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You should never settle. If it doesn't excite you every

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single day, well, then just walk away. Life's too short

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to stay anywhere that isn't a perfect fit for you. Man,

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Does that sound like freedom? Put it on a forearm tattoo.

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Except the problem is it's the most expensive lie on

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the whole menu. Because nothing worth having excites you every

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single day. Your marriage won't, your business won't, your craft won't.

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There are tuesdays in everything great, long and boring and

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unglamorous tuesdays where you show up and do the work

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and you feel absolutely nothing. The people who never settle

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often never finish anything either. They mistake the boredom of

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00:27:29.279 --> 00:27:33.680
mastery as a sign they need to quit, and then

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they spend their whole lives in the cycles starting over

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and calling it courage again. And you know the thing is,

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the truth didn't move, only the packaging. Now do you

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feel it? Do you see what just happened? I took

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four pieces of nonsense. I dressed them up in nice

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clothing or nice words, and for a second, each one

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of them sounded believable or you thought, oh well, I

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know a guy that would have thought that. And that's

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exactly how words work. It doesn't have to be true,

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it just has to sound true. Now here's a line,

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and I want you to tat to this on the

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inside of your skull. Words don't need to be true.

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They only need to sound true. And that's the entire

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vulnerability of the human mind in one sentence. Every persuasion

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machine on earth absolutely knows this. That's why politicians use it,

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and advertisers use it, and influencers use it, and cult

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leaders use it, and to be fair, great leaders use

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it too. The tool itself isn't evil. A line that

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sounds true and is true is the most beautiful thing

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a human can say. It's the same craft. The difference

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is the intention behind it. The con man and the

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00:29:09.119 --> 00:29:13.640
coach are using the exact same skill. One is using

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it to take from you, the other is using it

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to give to you and from the outside, and in

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that moment they can sound identical. Think about the last

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time something sold you almost instantly. Maybe it was the

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headline you clicked, the pitch that you said guest to

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before you've even finished the thought that speed, and that's

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the tell truth can usually survive a night's sleep. Manipulation

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needs you to act right now before the spell wears

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off that limited time, only a few left. You have

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to decide today is the urgency is the manipulator favorite

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tool because urgency shuts off the part of your brain

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that asks questions. So when something demands a fast yes,

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that's exactly the moment that you need to slow down.

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So you say, how do I protect myself? Well, you

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don't do it by getting smarter. Smart people get fooled

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all the time, sometimes even easier because they're sure they

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can't be wrong. You protect yourself by slowing down by

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asking one question when something lands a little too smoothly,

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is this actually true? Or does it just sound true?

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The half second pause is the whole defense. That's the

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difference between being led and being driven. Now, who does

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this protect and who does it protect you from? Because

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because it's not just about obvious villains. You know, the

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loud people, the manipulators. While they're easy, you can see

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them coming from a mile away. It's the smooth ones

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that get you. The calm voice, the reasonable tone, the

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thing that sounds so balanced and so wise that questioning

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it feels rude. That's the one to slow down on.

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Not because calm people are liars, but because sounds reasonable

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and is true are not the same thing. Now, I'm

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not saying to walk round cynical, Okay, Cynicism is just gullibility.

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The Jeremy Hanson Podcast -The Power of Words

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