Any decent public speaker knows the importance of reading the room. Politicians alter their stump speeches depending on the crowd. Comedians take the temperature of a club with “feeler” jokes in the beginning of their sets. CEOs use different language to convey the same information to employees, customers, and investors.
It’s all about understanding the audience.
People sometimes ask me about the most valuable lesson I learned in business school. It was actually something I learned in the second week. It’s deceptively simple. The lesson was, “It’s not what you say, it’s what they hear.”
You may have a critical message to deliver, but if you don’t communicate it in a way that the audience understands – and is receptive to – you’ve failed.
Sure, you can call them fools and Philistines. But in the end, you didn’t achieve your objective.
That applies to video production just as much as public speaking.
The three essential questions you need to ask yourself at every turn are:
What is the message?
Who is the audience?
Why should they care?
It’s easy to lose track of the answers when delivering a speech. Even while writing this short blog post, I’ve had to course-correct multiple times. Each new thought I wrote sent me on a potential tangent.
It’s even easier to lose direction when producing a video. With all the variables, pressures, and decisions that go along with the process, it can be very difficult to stay on track.
If you overlook who you audience is and why they should care about your message, you won’t reach them.
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I hope this has been helpful. Visit jkcreative.net to learn more about creative strategy consulting and how to work with me directly to improve your creative processes, project management, marketing, and more.
If you have any questions or comments, or would like to suggest a future topic, please email me at jesse@jkcreative.net.
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