How To Hold People's Attention - Help Wanted

Summary

Podcast Summary: Help Wanted – How To Hold People's Attention Release Date: January 9, 2025
Host/Author: Money News Network
Hosts: Jason Feifer (Editor in Chief, Entrepreneur Magazine) and Nicole Lapin (Money Expert)

Introduction

In the January 9, 2025 episode of Help Wanted, titled "How To Hold People's Attention", hosts Jason Feifer and Nicole Lapin delve into the critical skill of maintaining engagement in communication. Whether you're an entrepreneur, employee, or leader, understanding how to captivate your audience is paramount. Jason introduces the concept of "brief bricks and mortar," a fundamental strategy to enhance communication effectiveness.

Understanding the Challenge of Communication

Jason Feifer begins by addressing a universal problem: "You are trying to communicate something, but it is not connecting". He emphasizes that regardless of the medium—be it writing, speaking, or any other form of information sharing—the primary challenge lies in ensuring that the message resonates with the intended audience.

Key Insight:
People inherently ask themselves, "Is this for me or not for me?" before fully engaging with any content. This internal question drives their decision to pay attention or disengage.

Introducing Brief Bricks and Mortar

Jason introduces the metaphor of "bricks and mortar" to elucidate effective communication:

Bricks: Represent the facts or information being shared. These are the concrete elements of your message.
Mortar: Symbolizes the context that binds the facts together, making them relevant and meaningful to the audience.

Notable Quote:
"The mortar holds everything together. It is what makes a brick useful. Assembling all those facts into a structure specifically designed for your audience." (05:30)

The Importance of Repeated Relevance

Jason stresses that answering the audience's primary question—“Is this for me?”—is not a one-time effort. Instead, it must be addressed continuously throughout the communication process to maintain engagement.

Example Scenario:
He illustrates this by comparing it to a long, rambling story from a friend. Initially, the audience is interested (“It's for me”), but as the story drags without clear relevance, interest wanes (“Is this going anywhere?”).

Notable Quote:
"If you want to hold someone's attention and connect with them, you must answer it repeatedly." (06:45)

Application of Bricks and Mortar: The Jimmy Fallon Example

To demonstrate the practical application of this concept, Jason recounts his experience profiling Jimmy Fallon for Entrepreneur magazine. Despite Jimmy's primary association with entertainment, Jason crafted a narrative that provided valuable lessons for entrepreneurs.

Detailed Breakdown:

Bricks (Facts):
- Jimmy Fallon quit Saturday Night Live to pursue a movie career, which initially flopped.
- His lack of passion for movies led to failures.
Mortar (Context):
- Jason contextualized Jimmy's journey to highlight the pitfalls of following a predetermined path without personal passion.
- He connected Jimmy's experience to a broader lesson for entrepreneurs about avoiding unimaginative career paths.

Notable Quote:
"It's just the path. Not your path, simply the path. A path, some path. A clearing that other people make for their own purposes, not for yours." (09:15)

Transforming Personal Stories into Audience-Relevant Lessons

Jason emphasizes the necessity of tailoring personal anecdotes to meet the specific needs and interests of the audience. By transforming his conversation with Jimmy Fallon, he ensured that the story provided actionable insights for entrepreneurs rather than just recounting Jimmy's career missteps.

Practical Steps:

Identify the Core Message: Extract the fundamental lesson from the story.
Align with Audience Needs: Adapt the message to address the unique challenges and aspirations of the audience.
Integrate Lessons Seamlessly: Weave the lesson into the narrative to maintain flow and relevance.

Notable Quote:
"The mortar is what makes it meaningful. Because, look, here's the thing. You might have the best stories in the world... But nobody will hear them if you don't answer their first question." (11:00)

Enhancing Communication Through Audience Awareness

Jason advises communicators to adopt a mindset that places the audience’s needs at the forefront. This involves:

Active Engagement: Continuously assessing whether the message remains relevant.
Adaptability: Adjusting the communication style and content based on audience feedback and engagement levels.
Purpose-Driven Content: Ensuring every element of the message serves the audience's interests and provides tangible value.

Example in Action:
When Jason is interviewed on a podcast about his career beginnings, he no longer provides a detailed personal history. Instead, he shares concise, relevant details and pivots to lessons that aspiring professionals can apply to their own career journeys.

Notable Quote:
"Now I think differently. Now I wonder, what does this audience want? If I'm being asked about my early career... it's probably because this audience cares about starting their careers." (10:30)

Conclusion: The Power of Context in Communication

Jason concludes by reiterating that effective communication transcends the mere presentation of facts. It's the strategic integration of context that transforms information into meaningful, engaging content tailored to the audience's needs.

Final Takeaway:
"A story isn't good because of what's in it. It's good because of how you tell it. And that really means it's good because you're aware of who you're telling it to." (12:10)

By mastering the "bricks and mortar" approach, communicators can ensure their messages not only reach but also resonate deeply with their intended audiences, thereby holding their attention consistently.

Additional Resources

For listeners seeking personalized advice, Jason and Nicole invite questions through their helpline at helpline@helpwantedoneynewsnetwork.com. Stay connected and explore exclusive content by following Money News Network on Instagram and TikTok.

End of Summary

Transcript

A (0:06)

This is Help Wanted, the show that makes your work work for you. I'm Jason Pfeiffer, editor in chief of.

B (0:12)

Entrepreneur magazine, and I'm money expert Nicole Lapin. On Tuesdays, Jason and I answer the helpline and help callers solve their work problems.

A (0:20)

And on Thursdays, I give you one way to improve your work and build a career or company you love.

B (0:25)

And it starts now.

A (0:28)

You are trying to communicate something, but it is not connecting. What's the means of communication? Could be anything. You could be writing or speaking or sharing information in any other way. And who are you sharing it to? Again, could be anything. Maybe you're trying to reach the masses or a small group or just an audience of one. Either way, I have a solution for you. It is called brief bricks and Mortar. And it is the single most important insight that I've had as a communicator. This will help you connect with an audience. It'll help you keep them engaged and to be more meaningful to them. And today, I'm giving it to you. But to appreciate it, we must first understand why reaching people is so hard. Because it is. It is so hard. And how we can overcome that. So let's start with the first question anyone asks. Imagine a salesperson shows you a product, right? You walked into a store. A salesperson comes up and shows you something. What do you do? Likely, you will ask yourself a version of this question in your head. You are going to ask, is this for me or. Or not for me, right? Maybe that's not exactly the language that you use, but that's what you're doing, right? Is this for me or is it not for me? A sales coach once told me about this. He instructs salespeople to anticipate that exact question and then to answer it with the first words that they say. A salesperson must approach someone and then show, yes, whatever they are selling, it is for you. You anticipate it. Don't even wait for somebody to ask it of themselves. Just know it. And this insight really stuck with me because I realized, oh, wait, this isn't just about sales at all. This is about everything. When you start every episode of Help Wanted, for example, you are basically asking, is this for me or not for me? When you browse the supermarket aisles, you look at products and you think, is this for me or not for me? When you start a new TV show, you wonder immediately, is this for me or not for me? Let's call this our first question. People are always asking it, which means that as communicators we must always answer it. But that's not all, because we must answer it repeatedly. Imagine, for example, that your friend calls you up and says, hey, you gotta hear this story. Okay, well, the first question is easily answered in this situation, right? Your friend has a story that you will love. Of course it's for you. You want to hear more. But then let's say that your friend launches into a long, rambling, completely unsatisfying story. And let's be honest, we all have friends like that, right? At some point, you start to wonder, is this going anywhere? What is the point of this? In other words, it is not enough to just answer the first question once. Is this for me or is it not for me? If you want to hold someone's attention and connect with them, you must answer it repeatedly. Now, really internalize that. How do you communicate with anyone in a way in which you are constantly answering the first question? Well, to do that, it is time for bricks and mortar. The more you think about your audience, the more you will develop a kind of healthy anxiety about them. Every time that you speak or write, you will start to wonder, is my audience still with me? Do they still see what I'm saying or writing or sharing as valuable to them? Bricks and mortar is my way of controlling for. For that. It is a visual metaphor. And it goes like this. So the bricks are facts. The bricks are things about you or someone else or whatever you're writing and talking about. That's the brick, right? Just like what is the factual information, the concrete thing that you're sharing? The mortar is context. This is you addressing your audience, either directly or indirectly, to make the. The facts, the bricks as relevant to them as possible. The best stories and the most powerful communications are not just about bricks. They're not just a matter of this happened and then this happened and then this happened. That's not what a good story is. What matters is how you assemble those bricks, how you connect them for your specific audience. The mortar is what does that. The mortar holds everything together. It is what makes a brick useful. Assembling all those facts into a structure specifically designed for your audience. Now, I know that's abstract, so I'll give you an example. I once profiled Jimmy Fallon for Entrepreneur magazine. And on its face, this makes no sense, right? I mean, Jimmy is an entertainer, so what does he have to offer entrepreneurs? It was my job as the writer to figure that out, which meant learning a lot from Jimmy and then sharing what I had learned in a relevant and helpful way. For Entrepreneurs. To see what I did, I'm going to zoom in here on one little section of the story that I wrote. The story is like 3,000 words. I'm going to just zoom in on like a couple paragraphs here. So to explain it, I'm going to read you something from the story in just a second, but context here. Jimmy and I were talking about his early career. He had quit Saturday Night Live to pursue movies, but he was not very good at it. Those movies flopped. And even worse, he didn't seem to have a passion for it. During our interview, I had asked Jimmy why he pursued that goal at all, why movies? And his answer was really interesting. So I'm just going to read how I wrote it here, the story. Okay, here it goes. So I ask Fallon, if somebody had asked why that was your goal, would you have had an answer? He pauses. Three seconds of silence. No, he finally says. I'm trying to think. Why would that be my goal? Maybe from all the books and articles that I'd read, the trajectory of someone famous from Saturday Night Live is to do movies. It's just the path. End quote. Want to hear the opposite of a self directed mission to hear an entrepreneur's greatest trap? Four words right there. It's just the path. Not your path, simply the path. A path, some path. A clearing that other people make for their own purposes, not for yours. That is the path through an unimaginative life and away from the satisfaction of a risk taken. Okay, now back to me. Did you catch what I did there? This was bricks and mortar. It was combining the facts of my conversation, the bricks, with the context specific to my audience. In that case of entrepreneurs, which was the mortar? Let's look at it again, because I know you can't see it in front of you. So I just. I'm going to return to it. All right, ready? Brick. This is a brick. So I asked Fallon, if somebody had asked why, why was that your goal? What would you have had an answer to? Next sentence is a brick too? Or next couple sentences. He pauses. Three seconds of silence. No, he finally says. I'm trying to think. Why would that be my goal? Maybe from all the books and articles that I'd read, the trajectory of someone famous from Saturday Night Live is to do movies. It's just the path. Alright, those are the bricks. Mortar. Want to hear the opposite of a self directed mission to hear an entrepreneur's greatest trap. Four words right there. It's just the path. Not your path, simply the path. A path, some path, A clearing. That other people make for their own purposes, not for yours. That is the path through an unimaginative life and away from the satisfaction of a risk taken. All right, My exchange with Jimmy was interesting. You know, what he said was interesting, but its purpose was agnostic. That moment could have been told to any audience for any purpose. Right? That little exchange with Jimmy, it could have been in a story about the entertainment industry in Entertainment Weekly, or it could have been in a career guide for comedians, in whatever comedians read for career advice. I don't know. So when I wrote the mortar, when I took over for that brief moment in the narrative and I wrote that paragraph, I made that moment relevant to my audience and the whole story, whole 3,000 word story, it reads like that. It's bricks, then mortar, then bricks, then mortar. It's me telling a story and then using those facts to uniquely serve my audience's needs. Sometimes mortar is a complete paragraph, sometimes it's more, sometimes it's less, sometimes it's just a sentence. But I am always assuring my audience, yes, this is for you. Now, here's how you can do this. You don't have to write or speak exactly like I did in the Jimmy story. You don't have to do something like interviewing Jimmy Fallon. The point isn't to simply intersperse nods to your audience throughout every few paragraphs. Anyway. The point of this is just to be relentlessly in service of your audience. To always be aware that people are reading or listening or watching or engaging because they are in some way seeking benefit for themselves. They expect whatever you have to say to be for them. So what do they want from it? Again, that's going to change by the audience and by the thing that you've created. Maybe it's that they want to be entertained or challenged or informed or engaged. Whatever. You should know, when you think like this, you'll become more aware of what you're writing and saying right down to the sentence level. I do it all the time now, even in conversations and emails. I mean, let's say that I'm being interviewed on a podcast and someone asks me, how did your career begin? Years ago, before I used bricks and mortar, before I ever thought about this, I would have thought, oh, this podcaster is interested in me. They want to know about my career. And so then I would have given a long, detailed answer about my career. But now I think differently. Now I wonder, what does this audience want? If I'm being asked about my early career, for example, it's probably because this audience this podcast audience cares about starting their careers. So now I'm going to answer the question differently. I'm going to give a few small details about my journey. Those are the bricks. But I'm also going to remember this audience doesn't really, really care about my journey. They care about their own journey. So I'm going to pivot from my journey, from the bricks, from the facts that I just shared with them, into lessons, lessons that I learned, lessons that they can take away, lessons that are applicable to the specific listener that I have in mind. Because those are the mortar. And the mortar is what makes it meaningful. Because, look, here's the thing. You might have the best stories in the world, the best insight, the best information, the best product, the best service, the best anything. But nobody will hear them if you don't answer their first question. Is this for me? Is this not for me? If you stack a bunch of bricks on top of each other, all you have made is a wall that easily falls. Bricks need mortar. Facts need context. A story isn't good because of what's in it. It's good because of how you tell it. And that really means it's good because you're aware of who you're telling it to. You are the thing that makes a story good. Never forget that. Help Wanted is a production of Money News Network. Help Wanted is hosted by me, Jason.