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Looking Inward
July 26, 2022
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“I can see for miles and miles …”
Statistics and focus groups are not going to tell you what your listeners will want in the future.
Maybe they can help show you what NOT to do, but predicting what people will want before they hear it, before they see it…? That’s really hard.
You know that even if it's comforting to believe otherwise.
It may be helpful if you use research and ratings data as a scapegoat for failure. But I don’t want a programmer playing it safe, blanding it down. I want sizzle and unpredictability and delight.
So, what are you to do?
I believe the best you can hope for is to spend time looking inward, to your own most basic wants and needs, identifying those particular things you are most passionate about, and following that passion wherever it leads.
Authenticity.
You can hope to find meaning in your work, meaning that is more valuable than money, the reason you chose this radio job in the first place.
And, the meaning your best work may provide for those who hear you. That's part of it too.
I've talked about it before, HERE and HERE.
I know you won't hear this from the other consultants you follow, but whether they know it or not, it is true!
Turn off your phone. Disconnect from your gadgets. Go for a walk, a long walk, and spend the entire time searching within yourself.
It will be hard, at first, to quiet the voice in your head, the feeling that you're wasting time when you have so much to do.
Keep walking.
Finding why you do what you do -- again -- will be worth it, for you and for your listeners.
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