How to Coin a Phrase
October 13, 2021 – Henderson, Nevada, USA
When it seemed like everyone from California was relocating, Tamra Leathem welcomed the transplants to Las Vegas with open arms. She had made the same move a decade earlier and knew the “fear of missing out” that came with a California exit. Every week, it felt like she was reunited with old friends in need of a boost. One of those friends, Katie DiDonato, was riding with her on the way to lunch.
“I’m trying to remember the last time we were together,” said Tamra.
“It had to be Carlos and Becky’s wedding.”
“That long? If it wasn’t for Facebook and Instagram, we would have never found each other again.”
“Totally. Unless we ran into each other at the mall or something.”
“You know, I think you’re gonna love it here. I mean, it’s basically like California. We’ve got In-N-Out and Trader Joe’s. If you need to go to the beach, you just go to a pool.”
“What about going to The Strip?”
“I go down there maybe a few times a year. It’s like going to Disneyland.”
“Yeah, I can see that.”
“That lunch place I told you about is just up the street, but we’re so close to my house, I have to drive by and show you.”
“I don’t have a lot of time.”
“I know, I know. We’ll just drive by.”
Tamra turned a few corners into a residential development and then pointed out one of the tan stucco houses. The architecture was a mix of French Chateau and Desert Modern, complete with no-water landscaping.
“We’ve been flipping and trading up for it,” Tamra bragged. “I’ve packed a lot of moving boxes to get here.”
“Well, it’s really nice,” said Katie graciously.
“Believe me, we earned it. Just like this Range Rover. My Anthony’s a hustler. He doesn’t sit around and wait for the world to give him something. That was my first husband’s problem.”
Katie nodded as Tamra continued to explain Anthony’s job and connections. They drove back to a more commercial section of town and Tamra stopped her Anthony stories to point out a billboard.
“They stole that from me.”
Katie looked to see an ad for a funeral home. Under the business name was the phrase, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” What do you mean they stole it from you?” asked Katie. “What did they steal?”
“The whole ‘What happens in Vegas’ thing. I made it up. It doesn’t even make sense when you’re talking about funerals.”
“What do you mean when you say, ‘I made it up’?”
“I started saying it and then everybody copied me. Remember how I was always into words and making up phrases and stuff?”
“No, not really.”
“Well, I was. Look, there’s another one of mine.” Tamra pointed out a new Nike ad containing the words “Just do it.” “Someone owes me a lot of money for that one,” added Tamra.
Katie smiled as if Tamra must be joking. “You should write to Nike. Maybe they’ll send you a check.”
“You don’t believe me, do you?”
“I don’t know. It just seems like those kinds of slogans come from big ad agencies.”
“Yeah, ad agencies who hear them from people like me and then make millions of dollars. Don’t you remember back in the 80’s, when we were living in Reseda? All the Valley Girl phrases. I made up ‘Gag me with a spoon’.”
“I remember you saying it a lot.”
“That’s because I made it up. And I made it popular. Then there was ‘Gag me with a chainsaw’ and a whole bunch of other ‘Gag me with’ kind of stuff.”
“Are you sure you’re remembering it right? That was kind of a long time ago.”
“Well, how about my newer stuff? Who do you think made up, ‘Keep it real’?”
“You think you were the first one to say, ‘Keep it real’?”
“And then there’s, ‘You go girl’, and ‘You do you’.”
Katie gave Tamra a skeptical look.
“You’ve heard people say, ‘It is what it is’. That’s one of mine too,” Tamra insisted.
Katie smiled again like Tamra must be kidding around. “How can you be sure you were the first to say things like that? I mean, it seems like those kinds of phrases just come out naturally. Everybody just starts saying them at once. Almost by accident.”
“No, someone always has to be first. What about, ‘Don’t mess with Texas’? Have people always been saying that? I came up with it, clear as day, and then everyone in Texas stole it from me and started a whole state motto around it.”
“How are you spreading these things around?”
“Talking to people. It used to take longer because you’d have to wait for one friend to tell another friend who told another friend. It’s a lot faster now because of the internet. You ever hear, ‘Who peed in your cheerios’?”
Katie looked like she was struggling to remember. “I don’t think so.”
“It wasn’t as popular as some of the others. I’ll bet if I try hard enough, I can come up with something new while we’re eating lunch.”
“That’s okay. We’ll probably find something else to talk about.”
“No, I want to prove it to you. And you can be my proof that I thought of it first.”
Tamra and Katie reached the lunch restaurant and found a table. Katie asked about the healthy smoothies, but Tamra insisted they both get big salads.
“Now c’mon, help me think of the next phrase everybody’s going to be using,” said Tamra. “It can’t be too long and it’s better when it has a noun and a verb.”
“I guess I’m surprised you’re so into words. When we were in school, seems like you kind of hated English classes.”
“That was school. This is real life. I guess I grew into it. Everybody finds their superpower and words are my superpower. Hey, that give me an idea. How about a phrase about superpowers? People could say things like, ‘Love is my superpower,’ or ‘Dancing is my superpower.’ Almost anything could be your superpower.”
“Sounds kind of braggy. People don’t like to seem too braggy, do they?”
“If they can get away with it. They sneak it in, like a humble brag.”
“A humble brag, huh? How about saying, ‘Humility is my superpower?’ It’s kind of ironic, you know? You’re bragging but acting like you’re trying to keep it humble.”
Tamra gave Katie a skeptical look and said, “It’s kind of long. And there’s not really an action verb. Maybe I’ll lose the superpower part and just stick with the humble part.”
“That’s still a good message,” said Katie.
“Yeah, people are kind of into being humble,” added Tamra. “As long as it’s their own choice. They like to talk about all the great things in their life but show they can remember not to shove it in everyone’s faces. Like they’re choosing to be humble.”
“What if you used, ‘Choose to be humble’?”
Tamra used her skeptical look again. “It’s not catchy enough. It needs more juice. I know, how about, ‘Keep it humble’?”
“Didn’t I already say that before?”
“Did you? I didn’t hear it. Yeah, I think ‘Keep it humble’ is kind of perfect. Reminds me of ‘Keep it real’, and you know how popular that was.”
After their lunch salads arrived, Tamra provided examples of how “Keep it humble” could be used in conversations. Katie tried to steer their own conversation toward mutual friends, but Tamra steered it back to her latest phrase invention.
“We better go,” Katie finally said. “Like I told you, I’m supposed to be meeting with a landscaper about my yard.”
“It seems like we barely sat down,” replied Tamra. “We have to do it again when you’re not so busy.”
On their way to drop off Katie, Tamra came up with more uses for “Keep it humble” and pestered Katie about meeting for a future lunch.
“You’ll see, by the time we meet again, everybody’s going to be using ‘Keep it humble’. It’ll be like the new way to say goodbye. And you were there when it all got started.”
Katie smiled to show what a privilege it was to see history being made.
When Tamra reached home and parked her white Range Rover in the garage, she had an unusual sensation of emptiness. She walked over her recently replaced wooden floors and wondered if her new wi-fi connected washer and dryer were enough to make her happy. No, she needed to leave her mark and let the world know she had more to offer than simply her good taste. She was creative and fun and a trendsetter. An influencer. She would take her new phrase seriously and prove she had brought it to life.
Tamra knew the fastest way to share a new idea or clever phrase was through social media. Instagram not only reached a lot of people, it provided a trail of ownership. She could point to her posts and say, “Look, here’s the first time I used ‘Keep it humble’ and everybody else came after me.”
Creating irresistible Instagram posts happened to be another one of Tamra’s superpowers. Her mind quickly shifted to art director mode. She needed glamorous settings, but she also needed to stay on theme. The theme for “Keep it humble” was that she was avoiding bragging or showing off, even if it was totally justified.
Tamra’s first Instagram pictures came from an obvious setting – her backyard pool. She spent the afternoon arranging deckchairs and inflatable tubes. She found just the right angles to show that the pool was not humungous but the water inside was clear and inviting. She captured a shot of her hand holding a refreshing drink with the pool in the background.
Tamra added three carefully filtered photos to Instagram and captioned them with, “We made the decision to keep our smaller pool. It saves water and is big enough to make great memories. Sometimes less is enough. Keep it humble.” At the end of the caption, she added #keepithumble.
The second photoshoot required help. Tamra bribed her teenage daughter into posing for shots in the kitchen. The stage was set by baking cupcakes and adding chocolate frosting. Tamra and her daughter laughed while holding up cupcakes, with baking pans strategically arranged on the quartz countertops.
Tamra liked the semi-candid shots of her nibbling on frosting. She posted a set of pictures with the caption: Eating some of our baking mistakes. Memories are worth more than perfect cupcakes from a store. Treasure little things. Keep it humble. #keepithumble
Tamra’s third post involved a pair of designer high heels she had kept around for years. She put on the shoes and stood on the white carpet in her sunlit sitting room. She took photos while looking down at the shoes.
The shoe pictures were captioned with: Kind of worn but I still love them. New is not always better. Simple joys. Keep it humble. #keepithumble
A new post, in keeping with the same theme, was added each day. Tamra knew from experience that new phrases did not instantly catch on. You had to keep at it, repeating the phrase until it got into people’s heads. Popularity and adoption might take a couple of weeks.
Tamra had no doubts that her Instagram followers were seeing “Keep it humble” and using it in their own messages. They would pass it on to their followers, who would pass it to their own followers. Spreading was inevitable and Tamra only had to wait for it to happen. But waiting was hard. She forced herself to hold back for ten days before checking on her hashtag.
When she looked up #keepithumble, Tamra expected to see millions of posts. She was bitterly underwhelmed to find only a handful, including her own. She scrolled through, looking for anything added by her followers.
“You can’t be serious? What’s wrong with these people?” Tamra said, under her breath. “Are they too dumb to recognize a great phrase?”
As Tamra continued to scroll and swear to herself, she realized that her own posts were mixed in with those from someone named Lola Childs. Tamra did not know the woman, but somehow, she must have seen and adopted Tamra’s phrase. Lola’s posts did not follow the correct theme and were more random than those from Tamra’s campaign. Tamra decided she needed to investigate. Lola’s posts might be a sign of things to come. Maybe “Keep it humble” simply needed more time to grow. Tamra sent Lola a message asking how she had first seen her hashtag and if they had friends in common.
Lola’s reply made it clear she was surprised to hear from Tamra and she did not think they had any links. “I work for the city of Humble, Texas. We’ve been using that hashtag for a long time. We also use #chosehumble and #humblehome.”
The news was a double punch to Tamra’s self-esteem. Not only was she being ignored by her followers, but some city in Texas had already stolen her phrase. What was it with Texas? Why could they not leave her alone?
Part of the reason Tamra had looked up her hashtag was so she could show the results to Katie. Their second lunch date had arrived and Tamra could not think of a good excuse for canceling. When she sat down with Katie and splurged calories by ordering a breaded chicken sandwich, Tamra did not mention “Keep it humble.” She acted way more interested in updates on California friends.
Inevitably though, Katie asked how the wordsmithing was going. “Has anyone offered you money for it yet?”
“Oh, you mean ‘Keep it humble’?” replied Tamra, as if she had not given it much thought. “Turns out a town in Texas is using it. It’s hard to get any traction when people think it’s only a local slogan.”
“So now what?”
“Not everything catches on,” said Tamra, acting unfazed by the failure. “You’ve got to try lots of things. Popularity is kind of hard to predict.”
“Why don’t you try bringing back some of your old phrases,” Katie asked with a subtle grin. “How about ‘Gag me with a spoon’? I could see that one coming back.”
Tamra only laughed and shook her head. She was too humble to tell Katie she had a lot to learn about how invention worked.
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