There Are Two Kinds of People...

Earlier this week I went to a small business sales training at my local library (shoutout to all the libraries in the crowd) because I hate asking peope for money.

The presenter started off by telling us there are four kinds of people:

The first two are extroverted, but in different ways. The last two are introverted, but in different ways as well. And of course everyone’s personality tends to have a dominant animal but is a mix, and that mix can change over time or even situation and context.

I’m not skipping over the details to detract from it. I think there’s a lot of value in what he was saying.

However, that’s not the point of this email.

The point is that his entire presentation stemmed from this concept. So it got me thinking about how often we see the same kind of thing in YouTube videos, and whether it’s effective.

I think it really is.

After all, I’m sure you’ve come across YouTube videos where the host breaks down an audience into two groups.

Maybe it’s something like “planners and seat-of-the-pantsers” or “fighters and flighters”.

To me, this serves two purposes:

It invites us (the audience) to pick which one we are, or think about it and debate and see ourselves for a mix, or even disagree, and that in and of itself builds a form of engagement and maybe even buy-in.

Even if we disagree with the split.

We find ourselves arguing with the concept in our minds or examining how we have or haven’t seen something that contradicts it in our own lives.

You’ve probably seen some YouTube video where it broke down YouTubers into two categories and then went into explaining a separate process or idea in relation to each group and how each group might handle it.

This grounds what might otherwise be a simple concept (i.e. how to plan your video) into a much more solid foundation.

And if earlier on we agree with the split and relate by saying, “oh yeah - I’m totally a seat-of-my-pantser!” then it feels like we have to watch to the end to figure out a better way to do the thing.

Even if we don’t agree with the split, this divide or categorization can add a common thread to a concept or video that can be returned to over and over throughout and used to make the video cohesive.

After all, if you’re a “lion” and I want to talk about how to sell—like this presentation I watched—I can frame how you approach it as a lion and how to be aware of how you come across as a lion, when talking about what language or body language to use.

Then I can also talk about how to sell to a lion.

Now these two things are related, but then I could also tie in how a lion might run their business, manage a team, organize their day, etc.

And that even gives me a total framework for all of my content if that seems to resonate with people.

If you’re stuck and trying to think of an original way to approach a topic, consider that kind of angle.

You don’t even need to make up groups, you could use Myers-Briggs personality types.

But if you wanted to create types you could easily pick two different pop culture items and use those to frame it:

Each invites curiosity for both how you’re splitting these, and how they apply.

I’m going to try this in a video soon.

I’ll let you know how it goes

That’s all for this week.

I hope you had a good one and I’ll see you next Saturday!

-Steve