Sam Horn and the Empathy Telescope | Keynote Clarity for Thought Leaders with Jon Cook Flash Briefing

We're continuing our episode interview series featuring Sam Horn of Intrigue Agency…

Sam Horn:

So would you like another way that we can actually engage people ethically so that they are paying attention from start to finish?

Jon Cook:

Absolutely!

Sam Horn:

Okay. Use a dog on a tanker story, and you're thinking, "A what?" Well, several years ago, there was an article in The Washington Post about an oil tanker that caught fire 800 miles off the coast of Hawaii. Now a cruise ship happened to be going by and rescued the 11 people on board, and the captain gave a press conference. He talked about how grateful he was to be rescued. All he can think about is his dog left behind on the tanker.

That press conference goes viral, and thousands of people from around the world are sending in money. $5, $500. The U.S. Navy changes the exercise plate of the U.S. Pacific fleet to search the open ocean. They find the tanker. They send a C-130 to fly low to see if there's any signs of life. Here's this brown and white blur racing up and down the deck of the tanker. The amount of quarter of a million dollar rescue mission to get Hok Get and bring him back to the islands.

Now, Jon, you and listeners may be thinking, “What does that have to do with me and content and capturing and keeping people's attention?” Well, here's the question. Why did people from around the world mobilize to save one dog when there are thousands of people in their own cities going without food, water and shelter?

It's because of something called the empathy telescope. And the empathy telescope says, we can put ourselves in the shoes of one person, or one dog, we cannot put ourselves in the shoes of many. We cannot put ourselves in the shoes of an idea or an organization. So when we're communicating, if we're talking about all the people this affects or if we're talking about all the customers we've served, it's so distant and far away or so overwhelming, people don't relate to it.

It is when we have one person who had a problem and bought our product and is now better off, one company that had a challenge and couldn't solve it until they hired us, then we scale out from the one.

The question is, what is your idea or the point or the product, what's your dog on a tanker story? Start with your dog on your tanker story.

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The Keynote Clarity for Thought Leaders Flash Briefing is presented by Jon Cook, founder of Keynote Content. Jon and his team help thought leaders, namely speakers, coaches, and consultants, craft and share their messages to better serve their audiences. Connect with Jon and his team at Keynote Content by visiting keynotecontent.com. You can subscribe to The Keynote Clarity for Thought Leaders Flash Briefing by visiting bit.ly/KeynoteClarity and enabling it there. Then, all you have to say is, “Alexa, what’s my flash briefing?”