audience priming

Last weekend, I went to Quebec City with my wife and her family to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday and check out the German Christmas market.

We stayed in the old city, which has lots of cool history.

Founded in 1608... one of the oldest fortified cities in North America.

It’s also where my wife and I got engaged :)

So we booked a walking tour to learn more about the city.

And the guide was fantastic.

Super engaging, constantly cracking jokes and dropping fascinating historical details left and right.

There was just one problem:

It was -25 degrees (celsius) outside.

Which meant we spent the entire tour trying not to freeze to death.

Couldn't focus on a frigging thing he was saying despite how good the content was.

My brain kept screaming "IT’S COLD!" instead of processing anything about Samuel de Champlain or the French colonial period lol

In other words…

It doesn't matter how good your message is if your audience isn't in the right state to receive it.

Now, sometimes these conditions are EXTERNAL...

Whether it’s because the reader is on the couch watching Netflix…

Headed to work on the subway…

Or stuck on an ill-fated walking tour in bone chilling temperature.

Yet they can also be internal.

Meaning:

If your audience doesn't have the right context, beliefs, or frame of mind...

Even your best content won't stick.

You could be teaching something totally transformational..

But if they don't believe it's possible for them...

Or they're skeptical of the premise...

Or they haven't been primed to care yet...

It won't land.

Good news is, this is where storytelling comes in.

It’s how you lay the groundwork…

By establishing the stakes…

Shifting beliefs…

And contextualizing things in a new way so all the puzzle pieces finally click into place.

This is how you create the internal conditions for your message to be received.

That's the real work.

Some food for thought 🤓

Jim Hamilton

P.S:

Here’s one of my favorite photos from the trip: