Page 21 - The New Articulate Executive_ Look, Act and Sound Like a Leader

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FIRST, UNDERSTAND

YOUR AUDIENCE

t used to be said of superlawyers Melvin Belli and F. Lee Bailey
Ithat they could persuade almost any jury that a guilty person was
innocent and an innocent person guilty. Billy Graham took his cru-
sade to the world and claims his ministry has forever changed the
lives of millions of people. Now his son Franklin makes the same
claim. If you have something to say and say it well, the world will
listen.
First, you have to understand the people. When you understand
the people, you can identify human needs. When you identify
human needs, you can appeal to psychology and thus the mind. I’m
actually talking here about two minds: fi rst, the conscious mind,
which happily swims like a fish all day long in a pool of intellectual

activity, and second, the primal mind, which lurks somewhere in the
dark recesses far below the surface. The primal mind hearkens back
to hunting, caves, and fl ickering firelight and perhaps violent death

at an early age.
These are two separate beings. Guess which one you want to be
talking to?
If you guessed the primal mind, you’re right, because the primal
mind governs our greatest hopes and fears, our loves and hates, our

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