Audience in Audience

Hi, I'm Kenny Chapman. Today I want to talk to you about the fact that there are audiences within audiences, okay? So think about that. If you're a trainer and you're in front of your team, and here we are in, you know, our contractor space, and I might not be like a trained, seasoned veteran as a trainer. And so if you're the one that's running the meetings, if you're doing the training in your company, I just want you to think about this one quick concept, okay? And think about the fact that there's audiences within audiences. Now, I learned this on the road from traveling over the last several years and speaking to very diverse audiences all over the world. You know, 2500 in a room down to, you know, group settings of 15 or 20, right? So what I realized here is that there are audiences within audiences. What I mean by that is you take the stage and you think that, okay, here is my audience or here is my demographic. And as motivational speakers and trainers, one of the things that we do is say, okay, who's my audience? I have XYZ audience today. Therefore, let's say I'm speaking to a franchise group of sandwiches, like a sandwich franchise. So in my mind, I go, okay, so I'm speaking to an audience of, you know, sandwich franchises, right? And what. What. You know, a lot of people build their careers on stuff like that. But what I want to challenge is the fact that within that, there's a whole nother, you know, demographic, if you will. And so what I mean by that is to bring it back to our companies. Okay? I do training at my own organization, and John, my general manager, sales manager, he does the same thing, and he trains. And I want you to think about, if you're in front of the room in your company, you. You might be speaking to, say, your technicians. Maybe it's a Tuesday morning customer service and sales meeting, and you go, okay, well, I know my techs. I haven't had any turnover in a while. This is my audience. Caution, caution. Right there. There is an audience within that. What I mean by that is your technicians have different thoughts. Your technicians have different things going on. Some of them might be having a little bit of financial challenge at the moment because maybe they haven't been getting as many calls or it's been harder to close deals. And so things challenging them a little bit, you've got to be mindful of that as the speaker, as the trainer, okay? On the other hand, you might have one of them that's going through a divorce at the moment or on the verge of a divorce. That's a very, very touchy thing. And you're not going to sit there as the trainer and go, hey, you know what? I realize that some of you are having financial challenges, and I know some others of you are getting divorced right now. Okay? That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm saying as the trainer, as the person running the meeting, be aware of this and structure your examples and metaphors to tap into the emotions that they may be having. Training is all about reaching people to create environment for them to change their behavior, okay? And in the sales world and in the customer service world and in the contracting industry, we don't spend enough time here, okay? So I want us to really think about that. Use the things that I've learned and pay attention to that. As far as the audience, within the audience. So when I say use examples, I use myself all the time in certain settings, in certain ways. And the way that I do it is I talk about something in my past, I'll talk about something recently. I'll talk about a challenge that I've had. Because as owners and as managers, we tend to intrinsically put ourselves on this, like, pedestal, and we want to be right. We want to be the best. One of the ways to connect with our audience is to say, hey, you know, it is what it is. I had this challenge last week. I made this mistake a year ago. I had this thing, you know, I remember back when I went through a divorce, I had this deal that took place, and da, da, da, da, da. And I remember, you know, back I was having this financial challenge this one time, okay? And you use yourself instead of calling out those of you might be, see, use yourself as a mirror to reach the audience within the audience, and be careful. Always using yourself. Okay? I say I use myself all the time. What I mean by that is I should say I often use myself, but you've got to bring in third party as well. So what you might say is, you know, I remember when I had a friend of mine, he was going through a divorce or she had gotten divorced and something, you know what I'm saying? And just use somebody else. To where it's not always like, oh, you're the king, and you've always figured it out and made it right, and da, da, da, da, da. Be mindful of this, my friends. There are audiences within audiences. The best way for you to reach them is one, start out, be aware of that, be mindful of that. Then use metaphors. Use examples to make yourself real and connect with what they're living. What they're living is a real deal. If you can connect with that and help get some things out of their way, open their mind to receive the training that you have to offer. I hope this is helpful to you. Again, I'm Kenny Chapman. I'll see you next time.