Being Heard in a World Full of Noise

The kind of attention you get depends on what kind of attention you seek.

Throughout history, some people have always distinguished themselves by the urge of having something to say to the world, by the duty to express the voice unfailingly growing within them.

Nowadays, this kind of person seems literally to be facing a wall in search of their ideal audience: an economy of attention saturated by incessant noises.

Apparently, there is no more ear to listen to one more voice, no more eye eager to see one more face, to read one more line…

With their attention already focused on what they need, the audience no longer has the time to consider a new figure or idea, even just for a moment.

But is that really the case? Is there hardly no more attention available?

There are certain things that need to be reconsidered first.

When we talk about attention deficit, it cannot be about whether those who draw all the attention deserve it or not. There is no justice in paying attention to one rather than another.

What there is instead, is an attention that has its laws and its logic and that turns to what catches its interest.

And so what we need to know is how the attention works, how it notices one thing among others and focuses on it.

Is Attention broken? The Cost of Attention

How can a new project, idea or lifestyle be promoted when the public no longer look the other way, beside what they have before their eyes?

How can we make ourselves distinctive if the eyes no longer perceive distinctiveness and are drowned in confusion?

Attention is indeed a resource like any other, in limited quantities and whose use represents a cost.

When you pay attention to someone or something, you pay attention, that is, you invest your attention on one thing rather than another, which could hide a better benefit for you. This is what economists call an opportunity cost.

Today, the state of the attention economy (its market) is such that drowned by the abundance of demand for attention, the supply of attention is exhausted. There is no more attention available for a new value producer.

But is it the problem of attention itself or the market that is trading it?

People who seek attention have been used to buy attention (i.e. medias, ads, channels, flyers…), thinking the more they manage to be loud and noticeable the more eyes they have on them. These tactics have long been proven effective. And if you can still afford it, you can buy such attention like any big business.

However, this kind of attention that becomes rare and costly is different from the kind that is as precious and yet still fully available to you.

Which one is that? The attention you create on your own, the light you get by your project, your ideas and achievements.

The Kind of Attention You Get Depends on What Kind of Attention You Seek.

There is not only one kind of attention; attention can be of different sorts.

There is the attention we get by default, because there is nothing else to look at or listen to. There is the one we draw on us by making noise, by talking too loudly, by doing something that dissociates from the environment in which we live. There is also the one we get by chance or misunderstanding, instead of someone else.

Finally, there is the one we produce by ourselves, that we build and cultivate on our model to make it faithful and committed, and that we then allow ourselves to seduce.

In others words, the kind of attention you get depends on what kind of attention you seek.

Rather than waiting for people to come and hear you, you need to choose actively the attention you want to have on you.

You should seek definitively an audience who embraces your values, believes in what you believe and is willing to engage in the issues that matter to you.

Does that mean that there is somewhere an audience in your image ready to listen, to welcome the value you bring?

Yes, but to find it you need to create a value that is unique.

The Secret of Marketing: Being Unique to Get a Unique Attention

There is somewhere an audience willing to hear you.

How can I tell you this with such confidence?

Because, as anybody, what you express and embody is unique, comes out of a unique history and journey through life.

All it takes for you is to bring it to light, to express the singularity buried within you.

By manifesting the simplest and purest version of yourself, you will then allow yourself to have a unique attention on you.

How is that possible?

There is a secret that marketing has understood and practiced for a long time, but has never really been able to put words into it.

This secret can be formulated as follows: Attention is an emotion. And like any emotion, it reacts to something that is simple and unique, that sounds good in the ear, pleases the eye and speaks to the heart.

When we suddenly notice someone or something in the crowd, like a love at first sight, we get immediately the uniqueness, the singularity of it.

Because it expresses one and only thing, and it expresses it well, it’s as if we know right away what to expect of it. As a result, our attention connects emotionally to it, and we are deeply fascinated.

If you manage to promote from you a one and only value, image, sound or kind of emotion, you will necessarily connect with the one who are looking for it, and even more, who are in love with it. You will speak the language of emotion, which is also the language of attention.

At last, you will also go beyond the competition for attention that is raging in the market.

Towards a World Where Everyone Has a Place and Belonging

Fighting for attention will not get us anywhere in the long term. Instead, it will get us to consume the reservoir of attention that the public keeps carefully for us.

The Blue Ocean theory and strategy is right: it is necessary today to find our own and unique path to growth and speaks, rather than competing with no end.

Every company, branding, organizations or individuals need to find the ground where there are the unique and the best competitors.

Consequently, our attention will be relieved and reduced to its essence: the simple result of an emotional crush, where happens what is supposed to happen.