You hear a lot about cutting through the clutter to actually get an audience to pay attention and hear what you have to say or do. It’s a noisy world. To cut through the clutter, you have to turn up the volume on personality.
Most personalities think that’s about finding the right things to talk about. Content development is part of it, of course. But reaching the audience has as much to do with how you say things as what you say.
Several personalities I work with are focused on being more prolific on the air, and we spend a lot of time finding ways to dress up existing breaks. Many times, the topics are fine. The ideas are solid. The execution is even quite good. But the overall effect comes off as flat and uninspiring. It’s not bad at all. It’s just not exciting enough to earn attention.
Many times, we focus too much on the what, and not enough on the how. We assume that a great story will be heard. But that story has to be told well. In fact, I’d rather have a great storyteller than a great story.
As we work on being more important, I stress the concept of learning to turn up the volume.
