How good are you at getting people’s attention online?
In this blog and video, I share how to get people’s attention fast and maintain it.
You can have an INCREDIBLE program or service, but without being able to grab attention, it’s like having a Porsche, but leaving it in your garage. You won’t get far.
If you want to attract more clients, you need to understand the power of attention.
So, what is it that gets people’s attention?
A Harvard study showed that 90%+ of our buying decisions are made subconsciously.
We all have an internal subconscious ‘gate-keeper’ that’s designed to filter what to pay attention to. It helps us decide which content posts, videos, and emails to keep consuming…and which ones to scroll on by.
Often we don’t even know what we’re looking for when we’re online. What we decide to keep reading or watching is predominately subconscious.
If you don’t know how to speak directly to the subconscious mind, you’re probably trying to get people’s attention logically… (which rarely works). Because attention goes in order of the brain stem.
But when you know how to arrange your words in a way that gets people’s attention, you get more engagement, interest, and most importantly, more people inspired to take action to work with you.
This is what I call compelling content. It’s something I’m super passionate about helping coaches and entrepreneurs to improve on because if you can get this right, your written and spoken content can attract clients for you consistently.
You can start applying these principles straight away and make money fast, it’s super exciting!
So to get someone’s attention, we need to understand the science of action. What makes someone take action?
To get this, we need to understand 3 parts of the brain and the order in which each part is engaged.
1. Instincts
The first level is instincts. With all our content, it’s important to always speak to the hindbrain first. The hindbrain is the ‘survival mode’ part of our brain, also known as the lizard brain or reptilian brain.
When people are scrolling through social media or looking through their inbox, they are typically in ‘instinct’ mode.
The instinct acts like a ‘gatekeeper’ and makes decisions super quickly, it’s subconscious, it’s super quick. And what we’re asking at a subconscious level is “Is this going to move me up my hierarchy of values”.
That’s what’s happening under the surface. The hindbrain is analysing super fast “Is this going to waste my time, or is this going to give me a return on investment”… whether that’s through entertainment, learning something that we didn’t know, being inspired, or a story that warms our heart.
So, at a family party when my Uncle talks about motorbikes, that is lower in my values. And he couldn’t care less about hearing all about business and personal development, things that I’m into. So, this is happening at that level.
2. Imagination – Emotions
The second level is imagination. The next gatekeeper we’ve got to get through is the emotion, which is activated in the imagination.
We’ve got to move people and evoke their emotions.
We do this by getting them to imagine a scene playing out – to be aware that you understand their problem SO well that they think “oh my gosh, she gets me. I really feel the truth of what she’s saying”.
We do this by painting a picture using specific language.
3. Intelligence – Logic
Once you’ve gotten through the instinct, and the imagination, then you get to the intelligence.
This happens at the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which is the logic, the analysis, the order and structure part of the brain.
A lot of people try and reach people with logic, and they haven’t come through the gatekeepers of instant and imagination.
It always goes in this order. Always. This is the science of voluntary action.
In order to get someone to take action, we need to work our way UP the brainstem.
So how do we do this?
There are 3 things I teach that are super effective in grabbing attention:
1. Talk about a specific PROBLEM your ideal client has
ATTENTION is based on a hierarchy of values. Anyone on the planet will be receptive to your content if you shift them UP their hierarchy of values.
Certain things are more important to us than others.
Research shows that most people are thinking about their problems. So if we try and reach them with a solution too quickly, we don’t build trust with them.
Today I was in Macquarie shopping centre and the Flying Doctors tried to stop me. But because I was on a mission for something more important in that moment, I didn’t stop.
The day before I was approached by someone asking me to donate to dry July because she saw my post on my recent skin cancer scare. And that made me stop and pay attention because it was in my ‘attention field’.
When you have to make quick decisions, we do it based on our values.
Any time a human tries to pull you down the hierarchy of values, you will probably get annoyed.
One of the reasons communication breaks down is because one person talks about what is important to them, and not important to the other person. Then the other person starts talking about what is important to them.
Most issues we have with human beings are that we’re trying to pull their attention lower into things that are less important to that person.
The question to always have in mind when creating content is – Is what I’m about to talk about important?
When people are shifted up their values scale, they will be grateful.
If there is a problem preceding your information – the solution becomes important.
People scroll past if you shift them down their attention scale. They stop and consume your content when you shift them UP their attention scale.
This is why it’s so important to be clear about who you’re wanting to attract, so you know the language that shifts their attention UP their values hierarchy.
2. Share the CAUSE of the problem, revealing something contrarian
Once we’ve gained someone’s attention, we can unpack the cause of the problem, being contrarian – meaning, going against something.
Russell Brunson calls this ‘throwing rocks at your enemies’.
You don’t throw rocks at the person or business, but more like a concept.
So let’s say you’re a nutrition coach, and you help people with losing weight, and you do it through a keto diet. You might throw rocks at a calorie-counting diet.
If you teach people how to run marathons, you might be contrarian to CrossFit, or high intensity interval training.
If you’re a parenting coach, and you’re all about hands-on parenting; that’s a method that you teach, you might go against people who are very hands-off parenting.
If you’re a mindset coach you may focus on self-care as a healing modality, vs. a coach who focuses on contribution and service as the priority for healing.
In my business, I teach that that doing a blog once a week, or joining a clubhouse room or starting a podcast is not the fastest way to get clients.
The fastest way is by having a profitable presentation.
Think about the opposite of what you want to share. What do you stand for and against?
Use this when you’re unpacking the cause of the problem your ideal clients have.
3. Share the exact SOLUTION of that problem
The third thing we share is the solution of the problem. We show people clearly exactly what they need to do.
This is all about POSITIONING.
If someone’s knowledge is organised, they change position in your brain and value goes up.
Every time you open your mouth you are constantly positioning yourself. Are you subconsciously lowering or raising your positioning?
The best way to position yourself is to teach people something they didn’t know – or teach in a different way.
When you organise the knowledge in a way that has a pathway, that’s what people pay for.
They pay you to take them through a process that speeds up their results. A roadmap or game-plan that accelerates the process for them.
This system is what I personally use to get clients consistently and make 6-figures per year in my business and what I teach my clients.
I typically get at least 3 discovery calls booked into my calendar every week by applying these principles.
I use them in my written and spoken content. You can do this in ads and organic content, in your social media captions, emails – everywhere you show up online.
This strategy is so powerful because you understand how to do it, you can get clients very fast.
So I’ve decided to teach a small group of people how to do this. I’m creating a new 30-day compelling content mastermind, where I’ll be leading people through this powerful process to create the right language to call in truly ideal, quality clients.
This will be available only for people who are already in business, you’ve already had clients, and you’re pretty settled on a particular ideal client.
I’ll help you craft your content in a way that attracts and converts, so the right people can immediately see what you’re all about and that it’s for them and want to take action to work with you.
It will be a very exclusive small group so that everyone gets personal coaching with me about how to use your content to attract the right clients.
If you’re interested, reach out and we’ll have a quick chat to see if you’re a good candidate for the mastermind.
So just send me a DM on social media or email me: info@katmillar.com if you want to be considered to be part of it to make sure you get results.
See you soon!
Kat
When I’m 75, I don’t want to be retired. I still want to be writing, speaking, and taking more of an advisory role in my business. I want to be on the board of advisors for my company, and have a CEO looking after the day-to-day operations.
I was sharing in my Inner Circle group today about putting the accelerator on and choosing to stop cruising. How much time are you spending in the fast lane really accelerating your growth by facing the stuff that scares you?
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