Tone Deafness - are you suffering from this silent affliction?

Sadly, tone deafness affects one in four brand platforms. Could yours be one of them?

Mike Birbiglia has a hilarious bit about stumbling into a speaking gig at a cancer fundraising dinner. Ill prepared (see what I did there?) he opened with a joke about… well, a joke about cancer.

To be fair, it was a funny joke. But, as we all know, context is everything. People actually got up and left.

So here’s my question for you… are you accidentally alienating your audience?

It doesn’t take a poorly timed joke to sour a mood… It could be a too-breezy tone or maybe co-opting a sensitive holiday, culture, or any identity you don’t belong to (including cancer patient).

Essentially, any time you riff on a theme or ride a trend without an ear for its source, you risk alienating the very audience whom you’re hoping to attract.

So what should you do instead?

Here’s how to speak to an audience in a way that resonates rather than alienates

1. Know thyself, and be thyself.
   If what you have to offer isn’t enough, back up and do better. You can’t correct for a subpar product.

2. Know your audience.
   Not just like—a vague idea—that’s not knowledge. Do some in-depth research. Or hire someone. I love that stuff.

3. Lead with empathy.
   Imagine you’re at their dinner table (it’s important to remember you’re in their space). What’s the mood in the room? What tone is going to resonate?

4. Connect at the point of authentic overlap.
   This is the stuff. Ostensibly they’re listening now. What can you actually do to help them?
   

So, backing up a step to empathy. Do you share enough commonality to joke about your audience’s particular conflict? Maybe you do, but maybe you don’t. And honestly that’s fine. You don’t have to be same-same as long as you know that and respect that.

Assuming too much, owning something you didn’t come by honestly—that’s why tone deafness is such an instant yuck. It assumes a fluency and familiarity that isn’t earned.

If this all sounds like a lot of work (it is, if you’re new to it, but it’s valuable work), hire someone to do it for you, and to demonstrate what they’re doing along the way so you can learn.