How do I get my voice heard?
Everyone has a voice these days. It used to be that some people had a voice and the dangers of that were only a few people dominated the narrative of what we should be thinking and how we should be thinking about it. It used to be that if you wanted to be heard, then you needed to be on one of a few select platforms – public speaker, radio, TV, or newsprint. Now, everyone who has a Smart phone or laptop has a voice. A quick scan this morning of Twitter, Linked-in and FB, to name a few, fills my head with, “read this”, “here’s my view on this”, “watch my YouTube about this”, “here is my big idea”. Much of what is promoted either is a conversation of the deaf (“I think this and I need you to agree with me”), or a secret ‘sell’ of my business or product.
What do I do if I have something truly important to say; something that I believe the world actually needs to hear for its own benefit? How do I get my voice heard?
The first challenge I need to face is why do I think that what I have to say is any more important than what anyone else is shouting out? Why should my voice be listened to, above the noise of others? Why should you click on my 3-minute YouTube more than someone else’s article, or someone else’s tweet? I obviously think I should be heard, but why? Is my idea new? Or is it just repackaged old? Is my idea urgent, like a verbal fire bucket on a growing flame in society? Does it meet a real need in the world, or just a financial, or ego need, in me?
I sometimes wonder how many other Martin Luther Kings’ sat at home bursting with a sense of injustice or were activating in their local street, but who were desperate for a platform to share their dream to the wider world? The word on the street seems to be that if you want to be heard that you need to build your profile first, build your following, create your tribe, your brand, your name. This would seem to conclude that the people who get heard are the people who are tech-savvy and good a marketing, not necessarily the people with the best ideas.
The desire to be heard could lead people in one of two directions and I’ve been tempted down both tracks. One road is frenetic. Be seen everywhere, ‘Like’ everyone, follow everyone, be like the exhausting toddler calling out, “me, me, me, me”, until the worn-down listener eventually gives in and responds, or tunes you out forever. You scream at them, “why didn’t you see what amazing insights I was offering you? .…. gold dust!” and they, as they hit the delete button, say, “Sorry I just didn’t see it that way”. The other road is to give up. Just stop tweeting, posting and filming. Accept that however good your ideas are, that you simply cannot compete amidst the noise of trying to get peoples attention. Writers stop writing, bloggers stop blogging, activists stop activating, callers-out-for-justice stop calling, advocates for equality, stop advocating. Put down your pen and step out of the conversation. Let the good idea die on the vine.
Is there another way? Maybe. The gift of this noisy market place is that I’m forced to answer a few basic, but essential questions. Questions that take a little time to reflect on. Time that goes against the grain of the hyper speed of modern communication.
The first question that I’m forced back to is, ‘what is it that I’m actually trying to say and why does the world need to hear it?’ Put in reverse, the question asks, ‘if I don’t make this case, or engage publicly with this idea, what is the loss to the world?’ Am I really going to change something in the world and if so, what is it that I actually want that change to be? The noise of competing voices forces me to refine and re-refine my ‘why’, so that it becomes essential (of the essence, the core) and therefore more likely to be influential.
The second gift of this battle for ears, eyes and minds, is that it forces me to question my motivation. If I am, at core, trying to make money, if that is the aim, then I possibly should stop right there. People sniff the ‘sell’ a mile away, however much it is disguised as a business offering, or opportunity. Of course, we all need to make money, but when people are more anxious about making money than offering a great idea genuinely for free, then the anxiety leaks out. We betray ourselves as too hungry, however cleverly we dress it in the language of a good idea or altruism. Money is a great servant but a terrible master. It’s a by-product, not the product. If the essence is making money for myself then it lacks moral integrity when it comes to wanting to change the world. Leadership has always essentially been about serving, not being served.
A third gift of this current communication challenge is that it questions and offers to develop my resilience. I don’t know, but I have a sneaky suspicion that Greta Thunberg, who protested originally to an audience of one in the early days, would still be protesting to an audience of one, today. She protested because it was/is the right thing to do. She spoke into her sphere of influence, however small, and kept on protesting because she wasn’t seeking fame or fortune. Resilience is to keep on doing the right thing, regardless. Suspect motivations lead us to eventually give up, when the money, plaudits, ‘likes’ or retweets, don’t arrive.
The final question that emerges from the noise of the market place is the most difficult. It’s the question of ‘who’? Who is your audience? Who are you seeking to speak to, engage with, influence? It is such a difficult question for any creative communicator because our instinctive response is always, ‘everyone of course! Everyone needs to hear this!’ When a writer writes a book, an artist creates a piece, a musician creates a song, the natural response is to want everyone to hear it, read it and see it. We want everyone to be affected, influenced and moved by it. The reality, however, is that in order to reach the ‘all’, you have to focus on the few. It is painful. Painful in the same way as when a writer is told to cut 1000 words from their article, or a musician told to shed five minutes from their concerto.
Yes, we need to refine the messages, check our motivations and focus our resilience, but the pivotal decision will be to refine the audience and that requires a disciplined honesty, a humble letting go of the many audiences our ego longed for, in favour of the one that is necessary. Get that decision right and you may just have a chance of touching the many, further down the track. But we start by letting go. In that ‘death’ is the discovery of the life, the authentic voice, to speak to those who first need to hear.