Show v. Substance

There is a natural tension between the concepts of Show and Substance as regards your talk. Each has an almost contrary focus for the talk, but the engagement of your audience depends on the balance you find between the two. Today, we will explore this balance to help you reach a more impactful message.

Before we look at each of these in turn, I want to clarify that one is not inherently better than the other. Each has pros and cons, and the audience you are trying to engage will determine the right balance.

Show

Let’s start by defining the term. I am using ‘Show’ in this context as another word for ‘Spectacle’. Meaning something that captures attention. Our attention is grabbed by something different, controversial, novel, or outrageous.

Just look at any ‘clickbait’ headline to understand how this works. Even when you know it is clickbait, you often cannot stop clicking because the statement is so compelling.

What is it that triggers our psychology in this way?

It is thought that evolution has required us to pay attention to changes. Noticing changes in tide, weather, and the landscape we travelled through was important to our survival. This attention to change is still alive and well in our brains, and our subconscious flags anything that seems out of step with the internal map we have made of our world.

Substance

In the context of this article, ‘Substance’ refers to the hard facts, commonly understood principles or theories and accounting of actions or data captured.

It cannot be overstated how important it is to base our decisions on facts and solid information. Unfortunately, because this often fails to pique our ‘change detectors,’ many ignore the facts.

But taking action based on other than facts is often a complete disaster. This has been very much in evidence with events around the world over the recent few years, including acts of insurrection based on nothing but clickbait-style rhetoric. With no basis in fact.

To really provide value to your audience, you must give factual, actionable and effective information that can be used and reliably produce results. Concepts, ideas and conjecture are often enticing, but if it has not yet been proven, it can lead you and your audience down the wrong path and destroy value rather than create it.

Therefore, you need to test and confirm the validity of your data to create real value for you and your audience.

The Balance for Engagement

The key to an engaging and compelling message of value to your audience is to get the right mix of both the Show and the Substance. Without the Show, you may not get enough interest for people to take on board the Substance.

Without Substance, you are offering little or no actual value to your audience and sooner or later, this will be noticed. You can get attention without Substance, but if the value isn’t there, you will not get the referral, and you will not get repeat business.

The balance between Show and Substance will depend on your audience and your subject matter. If you are talking about the Kardashians to a bunch of their fans, then the Show should outweigh the Substance. But if you are talking to a room full of surgeons about a new procedure, you had better have more Substance than Show.

In both of these extreme cases, you should still include both to both get attention and give value.

Conclusion

Too often, we have an idea we want to share as a message, and we go with that first idea without considering the balance of Show v. Substance. In the future, I want you to stop and think before you craft your message.

Consider how you can tweak the balance in your message to maximise the impact by getting attention and giving value.

Snippets is a section where I take some interesting text I have come across in the previous week and comment on it.

Last week, I listened to Joe Rogan’s recent podcast interview with Jimmy Carr.

I am not a particular fan of Joe Rogan. I don’t have much interest in him one way or another, with my biggest gripe being that I don’t have time or interest in listening to episodes that long. But this episode was recommended because of my upcoming stand-up comedy debut.

It was a fascinating interview with many things worth listening to, but what I wanted to share here was odd. A little bit offbeat. It was a nugget of information, more a concept or idea really, that stuck with me long after the interview ended. I will share it first and then explain why this stood out to me and what this might mean for you and me in our communications.

At one point in the interview, Rogan said to Carr that he was always interested in what people from other countries thought of the USA, and he suggested that many people thought the US ‘empire’ was starting to fall.

Carr responded that he had a ‘hot take’ on this. Carr went on to explain that he believed that empires never fell. They just transformed. The Roman Empire didn’t fall. It became a church. The value and the power remained it just transformed or transferred from one entity to another.

The British Empire didn’t fall. It became a bank. The colonies got their land and resources back, but the money was invested in the City of London.

Carr then posed the question: If this is right, then I don’t believe the USA will fall. The real question is, what will it transform into?

Why is this concept so sticky? Why has it grabbed my attention and stayed there? And what can we learn from it?

Well, for starters, it is a novel concept which I have heard nowhere else. And the fact that this concept was brought up in a conversation about comedy certainly made it stand out. It is also an easy concept to grasp. We can easily see how this could be the case.

And crucially, there was a second example of the concept. If the only example had been the fall of the Roman Empire, I probably would not have given it any more thought. But the addition of the British Empire as an example makes the difference.

Particularly as the second example is not identical, the fact that the second example is a bank, not a church, makes a huge difference that lights up the pattern recognition areas of our brains. We can’t help but think about how this pattern may play out in different scenarios.

So, how can you and I use this in our own communications and messaging?

1. Make a case for why or how something happens, but make sure the concept is simple.

2. Illustrate the case with examples known to the audience.

3. Ensure the illustrations are consistent but not identical to engage our pattern recognition.

4. Pose a question based on this idea about something that may happen.

I believe if done right, with the appropriate topic, this would become a viral communication in your audience or community.

Unpacking Wisdom is a weekly section where I dive into a famous (or not so famous) quote and explore how this can apply to the Compelling Communicator.

There are a couple of levels to this quote we can explore.

On one level, it shows that, as humans, we often consider things in terms of alignment. It is us versus them. Therefore, we are looking to see if you are aligned with us. If not, then you must be aligned with ‘them’. Or, if you profess to be aligned with both, you cannot be trusted.

On another level, this quote could be interpreted to mean that being too agreeable does nobody any good. If you avoid confrontation by always agreeing rather than speaking up if you think a contrary point has merit, then no discussion on the relative merits ensues, and neither you nor the others in your group learn anything. -By trying to be friendly to everyone, you serve no one.

In each of these quote interpretations, there is valuable insight to be gained by applying it to your communications. This can be summed up as: “Take a stand”.

Make a decision. Stand for something. Explain why you stand for something, and let your audience know your boundaries.

When you do this, you show a level of awareness. You show where you stand in alignment and in contrast to others. You show decisiveness, commitment and conviction. All of these are great qualities. The key point is that you do not need to necessarily stand for something controversial or even important to have the character qualities bestowed on you.

If you profess your love of black aniseed jelly beans and make a point of calling this out and defending this position, you will subconsciously trigger these characteristics in the minds of your audience. They will see you this way whether they agree with you or not.

I want to offer an advanced use of this principle, which I have witnessed being used by a master salesman. This person stated a position which was not popular and was also very weak. He stated it strongly, though. The weakness of his position was obvious, and the people he talked to would point out the weakness and work to convince him of his error and to move him to their position.

This is, of course, exactly what he had planned. He had constructed the weak position in a specific way so that attacking it was too tempting to ignore. But in attacking his weak position, his prospects were, in fact, strengthening their commitment to the opposite position, which was his goal from the start.

He would then let himself be persuaded into the new position, strengthening his rapport with the prospect and building their commitment to something he could leverage further in the sales process.

This was incredibly effective but resulted from years of experience and practice. Which is why I said this was an advanced technique. If this idea is new to you and intrigues you, please don’t jump in and try it on your next big message.

First, try to spot it in different situations. Then, imagine how it could be used in different situations. Then, try it out in some unimportant situations. Once you have a handle on it and feel comfortable, then you can start to use it where it counts.

What I am up to this week…

Professionally:

The end-of-the-year crunch is becoming a reality. I am super busy, and I am looking to organise an online Business Growth Summit to take place early in the new year.

Recreationally:

I have been busy helping organise the Misty Flicks Film Festival for later this month. It is going to be awesome!

What I am reading:

Still working through The Guide on the Side.

What I am watching:

To relax, I have been watching the animated series Harley Quinn.