Trust

The coin of the realm.

 

Trust is in short supply these days.

We don’t trust the media. We don’t trust those leading our companies; we don’t trust that the decisions they make are in our best interests. (And for most in Radio, who can blame them, with the evidence we see?)

We don’t trust our elected leaders. Many don’t even trust the elections anymore.

How will we ever bridge the gulf between us?

Check this out:

One day, as Secretary of State in the Reagan administration, I brought a draft foreign policy speech to the Oval Office for Reagan to review. He read the speech and said, ‘That’s fine,’ but then began marking it up. In the margin on one page, he wrote, “story.” I asked what he meant.

“That’s the most important point,” he said. Adding a relevant story will “engage your readers. That way, you’ll appeal not only to their minds but (also) to their emotions. … A story builds an emotional bond, and emotional bonds build trust.

That’s George Shultz from an Op Ed he wrote for the Washington Post two days before his 100th birthday. He died less than 2 months later.

Stories build emotional bonds and emotional bonds build trust.

When you’re ready to really have an impact in your listeners’ lives, tell stories about your own life.

Yes, they have to be edited and brief to be most effective on your station but don’t use time constraints as an excuse for not telling stories. It just requires more discipline, a bit more work.

Every great story can be told within 2-3 minutes, and almost every PD will trust you with that much time as long as you deliver! (If yours won’t, perhaps it’s time to move on.)

If you want your listeners to be loyal, to listen every day, you need to build emotional bonds.

You need to make them feel when they’re listening to you!

When you’re ready to do that, reach out. I’ll connect you with teachers who can help.

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