How to Attract the Largest, Most Loyal Audience You Can

Simple. Forget your audience, get to know yourself.

Every hit song, best-selling book, blockbuster movie or popular television show had its genesis in something that really mattered to its creator. Someone or something that moved them emotionally. Something that made them laugh or cry. Something that gave them a sense of wonder and awe. Something they found truly interesting, meaningful, or fun. It wasn't created by studying a "target audience" and trying to predict what would interest that audience. It was created by the artist getting to know themselves by paying close attention to their own thoughts and feelings and recognizing what caused them.

What makes you laugh or cry? What are you curious about? What do you know and care about? What values and beliefs guide the way you live? What gives you a sense of wonder and awe? What makes you happy or sad? What did you learn today? How did what you learned affect you and your life? Who do you admire and respect? Who do you loath and have no time for? What situations or people have changed your thoughts, feelings, or mood today, particularly when that change happened quickly? What did you find truly interesting, meaningful, and fun today? Contained in the answers to these questions are the best subjects and ideas for creating something that will help you attract the largest and most loyal audience you can.

Forget your audience, get to know yourself. Create stuff that moves YOU and you will attract the largest audience you can. An audience that's like you, who likes you and will want to spend time with you every day.

The Tyranny of the Target Audience

I cringe every time I hear a well-meaning PD or GM instruct a personality to focus everything they create and present on "our target audience." It often goes something like this:

"Our target audience is a woman 25-44. I want everything you create or put on the radio to appeal to her. Figure out what she cares about. Find out what she's talking about. Imagine what she's thinking about. Find out what she likes to do. Everything on your show should be about her. Just to remind you, I've put a big picture of her on the control room wall so you'll see her every time you open the mic."

These instructions are debilitating and dehumanizing. Without saying it, they strongly imply that the life the radio personality is living has little in common with the "target audience" and doesn't really matter when it comes to creating stuff to put on the radio. The effect is corrosive. When radio personalities are constantly told, subtly or directly, to look outside themselves for ideas for their shows, they suffer a loss of self-awareness and self-esteem. Their individuality and even their humanity are diminished. They gravitate to safe stereotypes about the "target audience." They rely on trending topics on social media and syndicated prep services. They begin doing a show to please their bosses and not themselves. They end up doing a show that excites almost no one, including themselves. It's not distinctive. It's not personal. It's not intimate. It's not memorable. It's not important. The lack of energy, enthusiasm, and passion is palpable. And sadly, the show sounds just like every other morning radio show. For example, when was the last time you heard a morning radio show with a female "target audience" that didn't have a woman reporting celebrity news and gossip each day. The exact same celebrity news and gossip heard up and down the radio dial and widely available on Facebook and other social media. You know, the ever present trending topics.

The tyranny of the "target audience" instruction has created countless victims within the radio business. It's also caused many really talented and interesting personalities to flee traditional AM and FM radio for places like the world of podcasting that allow more creative freedom and encourage innovation and experimentation. I've talked to many of the victims over the years.  Regrettably, what they all seem to have in common is a loss of their individuality and personal identity. When I ask them what kind of show they want to do, they always tell me, "I can do whatever kind of show you want me to do." They often ask me, "What is your target audience?" If I give them an answer, no matter what it is, they nearly always tell me, "I can do a show for that audience."

There are other big problems with the "target audience" instructions. They assume every woman or man is living their life as part of a homogenous demographic group. Like every woman 25-44 has the exact same life with the same interests, wants and needs. They also assume that it's possible to predict, with some certainty, what every man or woman wants to hear on the radio because they belong to a demographic group. That's a myth. If it were true, every song would be a hit, every movie a blockbuster, every book a bestseller, and every radio show would be killing it in PPM.

So why not forget the mythical "target audience" and instead encourage personalities to focus their creative efforts on the one thing they all have in common with their listeners? Male or female, no matter our age, we all share the same set of emotions. Joy and sadness. Love and hate. Doubt and fear. Emotion is the universal human connector. The surest way for a radio personality to create the most distinctive, appealing, and relevant content and attract the largest and most loyal audience possible is to pay attention to what rings their emotional bell in every event and circumstance of their lives. What makes them laugh, cry, or marvel. What generates a sense of wonder and awe. What causes them to think or feel differently or completely change their mood. What inspires them. What gets them truly excited and arouses their curiosity. This is the source of great content because it springs from what we all have in common. Not our age, sex or demographic group, but our humanity, our human emotions.

Don't let the tyranny of the "target audience" claim another victim, produce another bland and disposable radio show, or chase another talented artist from AM and FM radio.

We're All Born Creative

From a very young age we all have a quiet little voice in our heads that comes from somewhere deep inside. It whispers unique and amazing thoughts and ideas to us. In the beginning, we all hear these ideas, get excited, and do something about them. Unfortunately, the bigger and more unusual the ideas, the more resistance we encounter when we try to bring them to life. Eventually, most of us stop listening to that quiet little voice, dismiss its thoughts and ideas, and just try to fit in because it's too damn hard to do otherwise.

The most successful radio personalities and great artists of all kinds never stop listening to that quiet little voice in their heads no matter how tough it gets. I just watched an interview Charlie Rose did with James Taylor a couple of years ago. He talked about how hard it was for him early on in his life.

"I was born with a difficulty of being in my own skin. Living in human society I just ran into trouble. I think everybody does to a greater or lesser extent. I did feel as though I was born on the dark side of the Moon and that I didn't have a place in this world when I was 15."

James Taylor's troubles living in this world inspired that quiet little voice in his head to help him write some amazing songs. Here's how James described the process to Charlie:

"I don't really feel as though I write songs. I feel as though I hear them first and remember them and get them down. It's such a mysterious and subconscious process that I couldn't really say that I wrote those songs. I just channeled them or they happened to me first. There is a sort of lightning bolt kind of moment when you're visited by a song and you get, hopefully, as much as you can. Sometimes it's a whole song, but sometimes it's just a fragment. Then you have to collect those fragments and often later on you sequester yourself and hide away somewhere and work 'em."

That little voice in James Taylor’s head reacting to the suicide of a childhood friend named Suzanne, the failure of his early band “Flying Machine” and his struggles to overcome drug addiction helped him write “Fire and Rain”. James paid attention to the thoughts and feelings that flowed from these experiences that rang his emotional bell. He listened to that little voice in his head expressing his joys and sorrows. It helped him create a song that produces a powerful and memorable emotional experience.

The best radio is all about creating meaningful emotional experiences for listeners. If you’re a radio personality or anyone involved in creating radio content, don't stop listening to that quiet little voice in your head. It's your genius. It will provide the material that will cause your listeners to laugh, marvel, or understand something meaningful and important and help develop a lasting emotional connection with you. Write down everything it says no matter how weird, nonsensical, or fragmentary it may seem at the time. If you don't write it down you'll forget it. Then, like James Taylor, spend time with the stuff you collect. Work it and shape it. Figure out what you were born to create. Build it. Publish it. The world is waiting for you to make a difference like James Taylor has with his songs.

What Causes Radio Personalities to Generate Great Content?

Clients often ask me which of the Fourteen Traits Inherent in the Best RadioPersonalities is the most important and predictive of success on the radio. That’s a very difficult question. It’s usually unwise to isolate any of the Fourteen Traits because each tends to modify or reinforce others. Multiple traits contribute to a personality’s appeal to listeners, ability to create content, and perform on the radio.

When it comes to creating distinctive and powerful content, high level Curiosity is the key driver. The constant urge to ask questions fueled by an insatiable desire to know generates the raw material necessary to produce truly life enriching content. Really good questions prompt answers loaded with learning and discovery that can be shared with listeners.

It’s also important to note that great questions are often the product of the traits of Awareness, Imagination, Experience, and Courage. The more a personality hears not only the words in an answer but the thoughts and feelings behind the words (Awareness), recognizes how thoughts and feelings, experiences and ideas connect to new and more interesting subjects and ideas (Imagination), has “been there and done that” (Experience), and has the Courage to ask any question at any time, the better the questions.

Here’s what these primary content generation traits sound like in action. It’s a three minute portion of Howard Stern’s recent 70 minute conversation with Bill Murray. You’ll hear only Howard’s questions from the first 10 minutes of the interview with some answers for context. Listen to how quickly and excitedly the questions flow because of Howard’s genuine Curiosity and excitement to know everything about Bill Murray. He can’t help himself. Each answer seems to fuel his drive to go further and dig deeper into Murray’s life and discover what makes him tick. Listen for Howard’s Awareness of Murray’s thoughts, feelings, and attitudes and how this knowledge informs and inspires his questions. Notice that Howard’s Imagination and Experience help him connect to the events in Bill Murray’s life, speculate on how they’ve affected him and explore how they’ve shaped his values and beliefs. Listen for Howard’s Courage to ask a person he reveres any question that pops into his mind.
 

Howard Stern’s listeners constantly marvel at what he reveals about his guests as well as what they learn and discover about the ups and downs and ins and outs of life. These magic and memorable moments are all products of Howard’s amazing Curiosity enhanced by his Awareness, Imagination, Experience and Courage. Howard is not alone. These traits are the foundation for the great content created by all the best radio personalities.

Knowledge and experience can be dangerous

Children are fearless and naturally curious. They imagine and are open to endless possibilities. They never consider or worry about what can't be done. Every child is an artist and truly creative, but then things begin to change. Fear sets in. Ideas stop flowing.

So, what happens? We lose something that removes fear, fuels curiosity and powers the imagination and creativity of every child. We lose our naïveté and its effect on what we think and do. Bill Atkinson, one of Apple's super designers and programmers, gained this insight on his successful quest to meet Steve Jobs’ seemingly unrealistic expectations for the Apple Lisa computer. "I got a feeling for the empowering aspect of naïveté. Because I didn't know it couldn't be done, I was enabled to do it."

When you find yourself thinking something can't be done, try a little naïveté. Set aside your experience and what you think you know. Sometimes knowledge and experience can be dangerous to your creativity.

By the way, the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson is full of inspiration and wisdom for creatives.

We're All Born Creative

From a very young age we all have a quiet little voice in our heads that comes from somewhere deep inside. It whispers unique and amazing thoughts and ideas to us. In the beginning, we all hear these ideas, get excited, and do something about them. Unfortunately, the bigger and more unusual the ideas, the more resistance we encounter when we try to bring them to life. Eventually, most of us stop listening to that quiet little voice, dismiss its thoughts and ideas, and just try to fit in because it's too damn hard to do otherwise.
The great artists never stop listening to that quiet little voice in their heads no matter how tough it gets. James Taylor was on the Charlie Rose Show the other night. He talked about how hard it was for him early on in his life.

"I was born with a difficulty of being in my own skin. Living in human society,
I just ran into trouble. I think everybody does to a greater or lesser extent. I
did feel as though I was born on the dark side of the Moon and that I didn't
have a place in this world when I was 15."

James Taylor's troubles living in this world inspired that quiet little voice in his head to help him write some remarkable songs. Here's how James described the process to Charlie:

"I don't really feel as though I write songs. I feel as though I hear them first
and remember them and get them down. It's such a mysterious and subconscious
process that I couldn't really say that I wrote those songs. I just channeled
them or they happened to me first. There is a sort of lightning bolt kind of
moment when you're visited by a song and you get, hopefully, as much as you can.
Sometimes it's a whole song, but sometimes it's just a fragment. Then you have
to collect those fragments and often later on you sequester yourself and hide
away somewhere and work 'em."

Don't stop listening to that quiet little voice in your head. It's your genius. Write down everything it says no matter how weird, nonsensical, or fragmentary it may seem at the time. If you don't write it down, you'll forget it. Then, like James Taylor, spend time with the stuff you collect. Work it and shape it. Figure out what you were born to create. Build it. Publish it. The world is waiting for you to make a difference like James Taylor has with his songs.