WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?
TRANSCRIPTION
How can you read your audience to know how they're receiving your content? We talked a little bit about reading them in terms of authoritative and approachable, we're going to go a little deeper now, when we're talking about your audience in terms of how they're receiving your content.
Here's what we have to understand before we talk about any of this, is that everybody listens to one particular radio station, and that is W-I-I-F-M. What's in it for me? Everyone, your judge, your jury, your clients, your colleagues, everyone. So when it comes to presentations, when I help people put together presentations, they seem to forget this. They go, "I have this great content, and I want to use this slide, I'm going to show this thing, I'm going to talk about this thing." And I go, "Who cares? Who cares?" What does your audience want? You got to give them exactly what they want.
I have two questions for you, in terms of the audience, two questions. First is, how do you want to them to feel? This is what I ask every single person before any kind of presentation that they give. What is the emotion that you hope they feel when you are delivering your content? Why do we go to feeling? Because you guys so much, as most people are, are in logic. You think logic is going to win the day. "If I can just figure it out, about how to do this in a way that makes sense, of course they'll get it, 'cause it's so logical." No, no, no. Read any book on influence and persuasion, it's never about logic. It's always about emotion.
If you want someone to feel something, you have to feel it first, which is why I always start here. What do you want them to feel? Do you want them to feel angry? Do you want them to feel sad? Do you want to have them feel sorry for the kids? What do you want them to feel? That's the first question. I don't think we ask ourselves that enough, but it's all about emotion when we talk about these things. It doesn't mean you're going to get emotional, it just means you got to be in that space.
Second, where are they at as an audience? When you're talking about where are they at, that could be a variety of things. If we're talking about different CLE that you're giving, I would ask you, "Okay, what time of day is the CLE? Where's your audience going to be?" If you're talking about your judge, you're going to be like, "Okay, what time of day are you doing this with your judge? How many other cases have they heard that day." I mean you got to be thinking about where they're at, to be able to write the right kind of content.
Here's what we have to understand before we talk about any of this, is that everybody listens to one particular radio station, and that is W-I-I-F-M. What's in it for me? Everyone, your judge, your jury, your clients, your colleagues, everyone. So when it comes to presentations, when I help people put together presentations, they seem to forget this. They go, "I have this great content, and I want to use this slide, I'm going to show this thing, I'm going to talk about this thing." And I go, "Who cares? Who cares?" What does your audience want? You got to give them exactly what they want.
I have two questions for you, in terms of the audience, two questions. First is, how do you want to them to feel? This is what I ask every single person before any kind of presentation that they give. What is the emotion that you hope they feel when you are delivering your content? Why do we go to feeling? Because you guys so much, as most people are, are in logic. You think logic is going to win the day. "If I can just figure it out, about how to do this in a way that makes sense, of course they'll get it, 'cause it's so logical." No, no, no. Read any book on influence and persuasion, it's never about logic. It's always about emotion.
If you want someone to feel something, you have to feel it first, which is why I always start here. What do you want them to feel? Do you want them to feel angry? Do you want them to feel sad? Do you want to have them feel sorry for the kids? What do you want them to feel? That's the first question. I don't think we ask ourselves that enough, but it's all about emotion when we talk about these things. It doesn't mean you're going to get emotional, it just means you got to be in that space.
Second, where are they at as an audience? When you're talking about where are they at, that could be a variety of things. If we're talking about different CLE that you're giving, I would ask you, "Okay, what time of day is the CLE? Where's your audience going to be?" If you're talking about your judge, you're going to be like, "Okay, what time of day are you doing this with your judge? How many other cases have they heard that day." I mean you got to be thinking about where they're at, to be able to write the right kind of content.