Creating Interesting Content

00:00 So how do you know what messages, what topics, what subtopics are going to be of the greatest interest to your audience? I have a radical suggestion for you.

00:15 Just pick up the phone and ask them if you're giving a presentation to 50 people at a trade conference on Friday.

00:25 Call one or two of them and just ask them what they think.

00:29 People would be interested to ask them what they're interested in.

00:32 And you can perhaps list 20 ideas, see which three or four jump out at them.

00:38 You know, this day of information being so accessible and everyone Googling everything and going to Wikipedia, people often forget.

00:46 The simplest way to get information sometimes is just pick up that phone and have a brief three or four minute conversation with someone.

00:55 Now, if you are leading some kind of a seminar, and you have a database of people who are supposed to be there, you can also send out a questionnaire in advance, list your 20 possible messages or topic subthemes.

01:10 Ask people to list three or four they're most interested in or put them in priority.

01:15 Also have an open ended question.

01:18 Ask them what you would like or what they would like you to address.

01:23 Your best source of information quite often is your actual audience.

01:28 You can't wait till you're in front of them and ask them, but you can communicate in advance. It's not hard to do email posted on a blog for comments or just pick up the phone.