Getting Their Attention

How do you get their attention?
You don’t.
That’s the wrong question.

You’re not trying to compete with advertisers on a race toward the bottom, toward mass-interruption, toward 10,000 clicks or a million glances from people that don’t care. You’re not trying to get their attention; you’re trying to give them your attention—and have them notice. They don’t need more information. Actually, they need less. Less total information, but within that total, they need better, more insightful, meaningful, appropriate information for them.

That means, in the midst of mind-numbing, information overload, your goal is to cut through the noise. And you don’t do that by screaming with a bigger megaphone. You do that by “speaking” with more meaning, more precision, more beauty, more creativity, more eloquence to the people that care about precision, beauty, creativity, or eloquence.

You may ask, “But where do I start?”

Start with one. Help one. Teach one. Completely give your attention to one in a way that cuts through the noise, offers value, connects dots, makes meaning, inspires and develops, you name it. Just one!*

Because if you show up for one, and your noise is not like all the other noise, it will not get drowned in the cacophony for that one.

And a second will be waiting, in the wing, to listen.

*I’m inspired by the old story of this one-on-one encounter and the change that ensues: John 4:1-42

[Reminder: There are five alternative steps toward engaging your church, class, team, community, or customer base. Giving them your attention is the first.]