How many invites have you received in the past few weeks?
With everyone realizing that their audience can be global, I’ve received emails from events all over the world. “Who cares about the timezone,” they seem to say. Invite everyone!
Most invitations understand that they are battling for attention. They try to impress me with Famous Guest Speakers, 100+ roster of performers, or some other novelty. It’s noisy.
I search for the invitation that is simple, clear, and honest. More signal, less noise.
“Come.”
If I find resonance in the simplest of invitations, I figure there must be something there. Something more than any marketer could convince me of with the right typeface, copy, and timed social media post.
“Listen.” “Enjoy.” “Breathe.”
If I scratch the surface and the resonance stays, then I’m in. I’ll follow through.
The shared experience will become part of my journey. Not just another thing to do, and later forget about. My assumption is that the experience will shape me – even just a little. I intentionally open myself up to that possibility.
We all offer invitations all the time. Invitations to connect in the smallest of ways. What if we were conscious of how the invitations we offered were framed (not just the mechanism of the hook)? As receivers, what if we honored those thoughtfully crafted invitations by listening for deep resonance (not just marketing triggers)?
What if we treated invitations as the beginning of the journey?