How to Reach Your Most Important Audience

Each of us possesses an untapped ability, when it comes to reaching the most important audience.  And as it turns out: you don't need an app for that.

We all have a “most important person”. Perhaps it’s a spouse or partner, or a team leader.

Maybe it’s your doctor, or you attorney (and, if so, good luck with everything after you get done reading this post).

How can you reach the audience that matters most?  The first step: identifying what really matters.

Important conversations all start with one key element.  One element that is crucial to reaching your most important audience:

Recognition.

What does recognition mean to you?

We all have a desire for recognition in some way – but what about the way that you provide it to others?

Think about a time or an event – maybe it was a ride on the subway, or a meeting at Starbucks. Did you really recognize the person right in front of you? Probably not. 

So many times, we cruise through life on autopilot, seeing - but not really recognizing - the people around us.  After all, who has time to really take in all of the interpersonal bits and bytes, when the electronic world is so constant and compelling?   

When texts are easy, because you can think carefully about your reply. Or choose to ignore that last message. Or respond with a picture, that's supposedly worth 1,000 words.  

In contrast, personal interactions can be...messy.

Unplanned.

Awkward.

But your most important audience may not be found in your twitter feed, or on Pinterest.

Think of a time when you were speaking to your boss. Your team.  Your professor.  Or your most important customer.  

Did you really see and hear everything that was happening, at that time?

Only as we remember the “event” (a past conversation, a chance encounter, a ride on a plane), considering the past in our minds’ eye, do we really seem to see what’s going on with the person right in front of us.

Thinking about the “who” in front of you doesn’t have to be an elaborate process.

Remember that person that you saw at breakfast, or your friend that you met for lunch yesterday. What was their mood? How did they seem to be doing? Rarely does anyone answer, “I have no idea!”

Recognition is an important talent – and one that we all possess, even for an audience of one.  

Each of us has the ability to reflect and consider the person (or people) we are speaking to – yet we rarely use it. While some have higher abilities to empathize than others (also called an “EQ” or emotional intelligence), we all have the ability to recognize our surroundings.

My question for you is: how often do you use your “super-powers” of human perception?

There's more to the story than your friend's last emoji.  In order to reach your most important audience, you have to start recognizing the "who" that's right in front of you. 

Have you stopped to consider how you can let someone know that they are important to you?

We are all dominated by other thoughts, issues, concerns and a self-absorbed nature (“What’s in it for me?” is a universal part of our survival instinct; it's hard-wired into our brains). However, that self-centered focus causes us to rarely reflect on what we all see and hear.

Everyone is wired to observe and report – we can always tune in to other folks, if we choose to. The first step in creating an authentic connection is by really recognizing the person on your left, your right, or right in front of you.

Most of the time we are so focused on what’s next that we forget about who’s here.

It's easy to get distracted by the likes, tweets and pokes - the millions of electronic messages that bombard us every day.  

Big data can create the big illusion - the illusion that numbers and statistics tell us all we need to know about performance, achievement and interaction.  But there's more to the story.

And that story starts with you.  

With a little recognition, your most important audience is closer than you might think.

About the Author:

Chris Westfall is the US National Elevator Pitch Champion, a sought-after keynote speaker and the publisher of six books, including BulletProof Branding and The Millennial CEO.  His strategies have helped clients to land on Shark Tank, Dragon's Den and Shark Tank-Australia, in addition to creating multi-million dollar revenue streams around the globe.  Follow him on YouTube and twitter at westfallonline