🎧 Listen to the podcast version of this email here.
Last week we talked about how your audience is no longer like a dog.
They don’t come to you, excited and ready to listen. Ready to play.
They’re more like a cat.
Back in the day, you could hold attention in a room. People would sit there, listen, wait for you to make your clever point.
Not always because it was brilliant, but because it would be rude to get up and walk out.
Online, that dynamic is gone.
People choose what they pay attention to. They can leave whenever they want.
And with everything else competing for their attention, you’re not just up against other people in your space.
You’re up against everything.
So if that’s the game, how do you actually get a cat to pay attention to you?
In a nutshell, you do three things:
You pull them in, you give them a reason to stay, and you reward them for staying.
Let's unpack.
Before we get into it, one thing:
This isn’t a full list nor is it "Joeri's magical system".
These are just things that have worked well for me and I am sure they will work for you too - whether you create short videos, speak in public, or write long-form articles.
Try a few, mix them, and see what fits your style.
It starts with the hook.
People decide within a split second whether they’re going to pay attention or move on. Your job is to give them a reason to stop.
That doesn’t mean clickbait. It means something that pulls them in, be it a sharp observation, a question, a line that makes them think or feel something.
A couple of months ago I put together a whole set of these in a newsletter called The Hook Bank.
Go steal a few there and make them your own.
Once you’ve got them in, tell them where you’re taking them.
My buddy Ed Lawrence always says people are actively looking for reasons to scroll on, not the other way around.
So give them a reason to stay.
What are they going to get out of this?
You see it all the time: “stick around till the end for…”
It works because people like knowing there’s something waiting for them.
Then give them something early.
Don’t wait until the end to deliver value. Give them a quick win straight away. A small insight. A useful tip. Something they can take with them immediately.
When I first started playing guitar, my teacher quickly taught me a handful of chords with which I could play a ton of songs already.
Loved it, cause now I could show off to the girls in my class.
People don’t need everything upfront. They just want a quick win that makes them feel like this is worth their time.
Give them that.
From there, make it come alive.
Add a bit of playfulness. Not silliness, just some colour. Props, visuals, sketches, examples. Sky's the limit here.
If you can show something, show it. If you don’t have it, draw it.
If you’re writing, paint the picture with words.
Or use a GIF, if you have to.
Make it easier to feel, not just understand.
Make it relatable.
Don’t just speak from their world; use it where you can.
If you can describe their situation better than they can, you’ve got them. But make it real.
Use examples they recognise.
Stuff from their day-to-day. Stories, metaphors, comparisons that bring the idea into their world.
Because the moment they can see themselves in it, it clicks.
Have a point of view.
If it’s generic, people can get it anywhere. They can ask ChatGPT for it.
What they can’t get is how you think about something.
So don’t sit safely in the middle. You don’t have to be extreme, but you do have to stand for something.
Whether they agree with it or not.
And finally, respect your audience.
We're all attention-poor and have a million things we could be doing instead of paying attention to you. So don’t waste their time.
To my previous point, if you say there’s something at the end, deliver it. If you say it’s going to be quick, make it quick. Don’t drag things out just to fill space.
People remember you being respectful.
People remember the opposite even more.
There's a reason people leave in-depth 1-star ratings with, shall we say, evocative language of restaurants they didn't like.
None of this is complicated, but it does require intention.
Because just because you’ve got experience, or a big title, or years behind you, doesn’t mean anyone has to care.
Remember, your audience is like a cat and you have to earn their attention.
Make it a great day.
