C (5:20)
Large coffee with cream and sugar, please. There is a sleeping baby in the backseat of that guy's car. And the guy, the dad, doesn't want to stop the car and risk waking his kid, which is why he just keeps circling around trying to whisper his order. The whole McDonald's crew snaps into action, helping him get his food and they communicate the price. There's this quick handoff of food for money and then the dad drives away with a big thumbs up out the window, grateful for their help. It is adorable. And if you watch it, it's actually really affecting too. Like it's kind of emotional to watch because. Well, let's talk about why it was so emotional to watch. McDonald's didn't just show a hungry customer getting food. They captured a hyper specific challenge that every parent understands and that is the delicate balance of caring for a child while also managing your own needs. This wasn't about convenience or speed in this ad. It was about knowingness. McDonald's demonstrated a nuanced understanding of their customers lives and in turn, parents felt heard and they were reminded that McDonald's is an easy solution for stressful parenting lives. Think about it. When you see yourself truly reflected in ads, don't you take notice? Here are a few more ads that really spring to mind. When I think about knowingness. I was once walking through an airport and I saw this sign. So first of all, what you see is, it's a, it's a, it's an ad and it shows a picture of a cute kid sitting in an airplane, wearing headphones and reaching up to the screen in front of him. And it says, if your vacation doesn't start until their movie does, you should probably have a United card. Oh, that's so good. Because any parent knows that really you cannot relax until you get your kid watching the movie on an airplane. And now here's another one. I really loved this Street Easy campaign which ran in the New York City subway. It was capturing the anxiety of New Yorkers thinking about moving to the suburbs. It's a series of photos of, you know, like cool looking people who really belong in Brooklyn sitting or standing in suburban environments, looking absolutely lifeless, like the life has been drained out of them. And so in one, there's there's this couple and they're sitting there. They're sitting there in a kitchen and on the table in front of them is a big box of pizza that says New York style pizza. And anyway, the big, the big text on the image is never become a former New Yorker. You can just see how much they like, absolutely hate that they've bought this suburban New York style pizza after living in New York and eating New York pizza. There's another one. It also again says, never become a former New Yorker. And this one is just a guy wearing a, like a Brooklyn shirt. You know, he's like dressed really cool like he belongs in Brooklyn. But he's just standing there and he's got a hose and he's watering the lawn. He's just looking out like vacantly into the distance as the water just runs into the grass. Anyway, so great. Like I saw these and I texted them immediately to friends of mine who had made the move from New York to the suburbs. I live in New York. Anyway, notice what all these examples have in common. They don't just identify a problem. They capture the emotional experience of having the problem. That is the difference between specifics and knowingness. So how do you do this in your work? Here is how to show knowing this. You know who you're trying to reach and you know what they want. But before you try to speak to them, you must think, what are their shared experiences? To find the answer, follow this two step process. Step number one, Just hear their nuanced complaints. Talk to your customer or your clients or your colleagues or whoever you're trying to reach. Ask what bothers them the most. Ask how that makes them feel personally. How does it impact them at home? What does it stop them from doing? Also imagine this. If a bunch of your customers were drinking at a bar, what would they complain about? Not immediately, but like, you know, what would they complain about? Maybe two drinks in. You're looking for a specific insight. It is personal, small, but also meaningful. It should make their peers say, that happens to me too. That right there, that is the core of knowingness. All right, so that's step one. Hear their nuanced complaint. Here is step two. Reflect their reality with specificity. Here's your goal. Whenever you speak through content or conversations, you should infuse your language with well earned knowingness. Your words should scream, I know your problems at a granular level. When people see their specific experience reflected back to them, it triggers what psychologists call felt understanding. They don't just think, this person gets it, they feel understood at a visceral level. For example, instead of saying I help overwhelmed entrepreneurs, you could say I help founders who lie awake at 3am wondering if they made the right decision about that product, while also feeling guilty for how tired they'll be with their kids the next morning. Instead of saying time management for busy professionals, try this for the executive who feels guilty every time they leave the office before their team, even though they know they need boundaries to be effective. And now, here's another one. Instead of saying I offer LinkedIn training for consultants, you could say, this is for the expert who knows that they should be posting on LinkedIn, but stares at a blank screen for 20 minutes before giving up, wondering if anyone actually cares what they have to say. In each case, the language is specific and relatable. You want people to think, oh yeah, that's me. Now here's how I applied this to my own work. I do corporate keynotes and to get these gigs, I often take sales calls from prospective clients. And when I do that, I often start by sharing this true story. I tell them this. I say, A few years ago I spoke at a large company's staff retreat and during the Q and A session, a guy in the back raises his hand. His name was Gary. He was an older guy, giant beard, and he told me that he retired a few years ago but misses everyone and so he still comes to the retreat. I don't have a question, Gary told me. I just want to tell you that in the decades I've been going to these things, I've seen a lot of speakers do empty cheerleading. But you're the first one to give us practical, useful things to do. So I just wanted to thank you. After I tell that story to my potential client, I say this. That is how I define success. It's when people like Gary are happy. Gary's have seen it all. Their time is valuable and they deserve something that's unique, practical and memorable. Clients love when I say this. You know why? It's because it shows how well I understand their needs and it shows that I can deliver. Knowingness closes the deal, because above all, everyone just wants to feel understood. Not just intellectually, but emotionally. They want someone who gets not just their problem, but their experience of the problem. The more deeply you understand that experience, the more they'll trust you to help them change it. And frankly, I think that this exercise makes us better humans too. It forces us to think carefully about the people we serve and what matters to them. We should never want to just sell stuff we should want to make lives better, which means we need to know those lives. So listen closely, dig deep, communicate deeper. You have to live in the nuance. Help Wanted is a production of Money News Network. Help Wanted is hosted by me, Jason.
