A Virginia family farmer is standing beside rows of luscious apple trees talking to a D.C. communications consultant. The farmer speaks passionately about his operation. After a few minutes he catches himself. Apologizes. “I know I go on… People don’t want to hear it.” He pauses. Looks around. Takes it all in with a gaze that sweeps over acres and acres of fruit trees. Cattle and kids. Sunflowers and staff. “Born here,” he says solemnly. “Born here, raised here, finished here.”
The consultant raises a hand. “Stop. That’s it! All we need to know. All we want to know. Born here, raised here, finished here.”
The farmer rubs the stubble of a three-day beard. “You’re right.”
Audience analysis is a concept that kids should start learning in kindergarten. By adulthood, most begin with, What do I want to tell them? The place to begin is, Why does it matter; why would they care?
In the business, we call this the WIIFM Factor, WIIFM meaning, What’s in it for me?
Start there, and the odds of connecting with an audience of one or 1,000 shoot up like sunflowers lunging for the August sun.
If we move from conversations to presentations, the place to begin is with three questions about your listeners:
- What do they already know?
- How do they feel about your subject?
- What are they looking for from you?
This time-tested technique is not about trying to make everyone happy. It’s about demonstrating that you have enough empathy to have thought about it from the audience’s point of view. Which of course will make them more open to receiving whatever you’re delivering, even if it’s news or information they don’t particularly want to hear.
An aside: All of this transcends public speaking. Recall the song, Colors of the Wind from Pocahontas, which includes the line: When you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you learn things you never knew you never knew. That’s the essence right there.
When you anticipate or know you’re walking into hostile territory, your job is to find the middle ground, that place where opposing views overlap. Think of it as a Venn diagram. The more you can move within the sphere of shared interests, the more persuasive you’ll be.
Know Your Audience is advice that’s been around since messages were etched onto cave walls, and yet, strangely, many skip it. It’s especially critical in media interviews, where the thing to remember is that the audience isn’t really the reporter, it’s who you’re trying to reach through the reporter.
But it also applies to mom talking to the kids. Or to dad. It applies to mom and dad talking to the kids’ teachers. And to parents talking to the parents of their kids’ friends. We could go on but here’s the thing — the concept applies whenever humans address one another.
Born here, raised here finished here.
It takes a little work, but you’ll get it. You just have to care enough to look. What’s in it for you? If it isn’t obvious, start again from the top.

Steve Piacente is Director of Training at The Communication Center in Washington, D.C., the owner of Next Phase Life Coaching, and the author of three novels and a self-help book: “Your New Fighting Stance: Good Enough Isn’t, and You Know It.” See his photos at: piacentephotos.com.