This week’s focus:
If you’re a speaker, remember that you’re audience is never captive. Even if they’re sitting right in front of you, they don’t have to listen if they don’t feel like it. They can ignore you, pay attention to something more interesting, or simply let their mind wander. It is your responsibility to keep an audience riveted on your message. Content is king, but useless if you can’t keep your listeners engaged.
If you’re an author, remember that you can’t force people to finish your book. Readers can daydream, skip to the conclusion, leave your book on their never-ending “I’ll finish it someday” pile, or try to sell it used on Ebay. Thus, challenge yourself to write a book that deeply inspires or profoundly instructs the reader from beginning to end. This is how you sow the seeds for word-of-mouth.
Chew on this:
“He nurtured life instead of destroying it, and was sensitive to the beauty of this continent, and did something to create here a civilization. Johnny Appleseed stands for ourselves at our best.”
– Writer Charles Smart on the legacy of Johnny Appleseed (speaking of sowing seeds)
