Move on to the quick teaching bit.
OK, so economics.
I know some folks may have heard the new economics of attention, seen the economics bit, and then like, please don't make me do math, right? I don't I don't want that for myself.
So, What I would like us to do is start with A simple definition of what I mean when I say economics, OK? Economics is simply the study of resources and how they're allocated, OK? That's all that I mean, and that's all that is meant by economics.
Attention is a resource.
And so essentially what we are going to be talking about today, um, and I'm translating the title of this of this clinic, essentially what we're talking about today is attention and how it's allocated.
OK.
So, this is generally how people think attention works, right? First, you get visible, right? And generally, folks know what that entails, right? Like, you get visible in any manner of ways, maybe you're being interviewed on podcast, maybe you're doing social media, right, all that stuff.
You get visible, right? Then people notice, right? Um, and generally this is a little bit more nuanced than this, right? I'll give people credit for that, that, um, generally people say like, yeah, people will notice your thing when it's built for them, right? And When it'll help them meet the goal that they have, they'll pay attention to that thing, right? So, 1, you get visible, 2, people notice within these specific parameters, and then 3, people act on that thing that they've noticed, right? Um, and Essentially that means is that once they've noticed something and they realize or understand that it's helpful, they'll act on that information and their behavior will change, right? Now, here's the thing that I know to be true, is that this particular model of attention is pretty dangerous, and that's because it assumes attention and visibility are neutral.
What I mean by that is this.
First, this model assumes that when something is visible, it will be noticed.
That's the first assumption.
The second assumption is that when something is noticed, and we got a person joining us here.
The second assumption is that when something is noticed, it will activate behavior change.
It turns out none of those things are actually guaranteed.
And that's why this model of attention is so dangerous.
But this is the working model that most people have, right? Now here's how attention actually works.
You become visible, right? Um, and when I break this down further, You do things to become visible, right? And in doing those things, you generate what I call visibility potential, essentially, right? And when that visibility potential is actualized, it becomes attention, right? So, you become visible and you're Doing things, generating this this visibility potential, right? And once that visibility potential reaches a certain threshold, then you hit this next stage, if you're noticed, right? Something, usually an event, will activate somebody's notice.
And it will make you and your platform relevant to them.
Right? Essentially, what this means is that you have made it safely to the other side of their brain's filters, right? That's ultimately what it means to be Noticed initially, right? Then we have a few more steps than that final 3rd step that we saw before, right? Third step here is you're stored, right? What I mean by this is that you're stored in long-term memory.
And to help facilitate that, I want you to imagine that in our brains there is a galaxy of stars, OK? Your brand, your stuff is a constellation within this galaxy of stars.
And so that means that in this galaxy, right, there are clusters of stars that are sort of near each other and are connected to each other, and associated with each other, and there are some that are, you know, kind of off on their lonesome.
Your stuff is a constellation of stars that are associated with each other.
And hopefully When you were noticed, you were noticed in the right way, because that means that you're stored in the most relevant part of someone's long-term memory or this galaxy of stars, right? So that's step 3, you're stored in long-term memory.
Step 4, You help remind them.
That you're there.
And what this entails is refreshing people's memories of you and your thing.
This sounds pretty simple, but Due to some recent research, um, it's actually a a pretty complicated process where people go back and forth between this process of exploring and evaluating different options.
And I also want to be clear here that when they're evaluating and exploring these different options, they're not always the folks that you consider to be your peers.
Right? Sometimes somebody's option or the option that they're exploring or evaluating is doing nothing.
We're doing the same thing that they're still doing, right? So, there's this sort of messy middle where folks are exploring, evaluating, exploring, evaluating, going back and forth.
It's sort of like a um eternity loop, right? And then eventually, They decide to make a decision.
And in this place, hopefully if you've done your job correctly, you're remembered, right? And so when they are sitting down to make a decision, They pull up a short list of candidates, and they consider that shortlist, and they Make a call, right? And the goal is to be in that short list of candidates, right? That's what it means to be remembered.
Finally, they make their choice.
And that's super straightforward, right? They act, they make their decision.
This is how attention actually works.
And You can lose attention at any point during the sequence.
And when that happens, it's like they've Been flung off into space, and you have to capture them again and sort of begin the process.
Now, Here is what is semi-new, right? I said the new economics of attention.
What I just showed you is actually pretty cutting edge, but this is like bleeding edge stuff that we're gonna be talking about right now.
So here's what's new, OK? In this first stage, right, where you become visible and you're doing this thing that I call generating visibility potential, right? When you are under-recognized, and I'll explain what I mean by this in a second, when you are under-recognized, what that means is that you are getting less visibility potential for the work that you are doing.
To be visible.
And that's because visibility biases allocate attention away from you.
And so I'll pause here and explain what I mean by both of these new terms, right? Under recognition means that you are somebody that society has been conditioned to overlook and underappreciate as the status quo.
That's what it means.
And everybody in this room is an underrecognized person.
I can, I can tell that just by looking at you.
Visibility biases are the cause of under-recognition.
They are cognitive biases, they are learned brain chemistry, and visible scripts in our head, that contribute to our behavior.
And so what I'm saying here is that You are underrecognized because people have been conditioned to allocate their attention away from you.
So you can think of visibility biases as an acid.
That eats away at your visibility potential.
So just imagine yourself on a hamster wheel running, running, running, running, running, doing the work to be visible, building up visibility potential, just like everyone else has told you to do, right? Like this is the thing that you do, right? And then there's this other force, this acid, this corrosive force, that's eating away at that potential as you build it.
That is what it needs to be underrecognized, at least in part.
OK, so that's the first new thing here.
The second new thing.
When you are underrecognized, You are asked to contribute more resources than your peers would in order to navigate the sequence.
And in order to maintain attention of others through this sequence.
I call this the invisibility tax.
And just for definitional purposes, the invisibility tax is the extra bit of time, attention, money, energy, resources, but under recognized people are told or made to pay by society in order to be visible and in order to be as visible as their peers.
So this is what it looks like to be underrecognized, right? You're on the hamster wheel, generating visibility potential, right? Trying to reach that threshold that gets you noticed.
There are visibility biases, a corrosive force that's eating away at the visibility potential that you're working up.
But still, you work, work, work, work, work, work, work, you hit that threshold, you get noticed sometimes, right? Sometimes folks never are, and they continue on that hamster wheel and they're never noticed and they never realize that it's because of underrecognition, right? But for those of us who like Do our darndest, right? We hit this threshold, and we noticed.
Great, amazing, and then you begin your pathway through this sequence of attention.
And as you do at every step, you are asked to pay more.
Than other folks who are doing the same things.
Those are the new economics of attention.
So yes, attention is a resource.
And yes, it is allocated, um, 2 Everyone supposedly
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