“Dialogue increases your perspective, it opens you up outside of the echo chamber. You’re able to bring other people’s stories into your content. You’re able to have other people influence what it is that you’re creating.” - Meg
In our next conversation about the Aggressively Human philosophy, we’re leaning into the concept of two-way conversations - prioritizing dialogue over monologue.
Missed our last Aggressively Human pillar? Check out our prior philosophy podcast:
AI and automations can make it easy to have “faux-dialogue”: where you’re sent tons and tons of “personalized” emails, or you think you’re having a conversation with someone but you’re really just talking to an AI agent or a bot. Or you can find a message that works and then “set it and forget it” through evergreen funnels.
And dialogue comes with risk: when you open up your world for real conversations, you might hear “no” on a sale. Other might disagree with you, you’re more likely to get hit with trolls. And when you’re in dialogue, there is a pressure to participate in the public narrative. Being in dialogue means more (upfront) time to engage in a two-way mechanism, through emails, DMs, or live conversations.
When you’re truly operating at “scale”, having a dialogue with every email subscriber isn’t realistic. You can’t sell thousands of Substack subscriptions and low-priced courses via sales calls. But the most successful businesses embrace, at least at some level guided by the platform, of dialogue. Human customer service. Substack chats and live workshops. “Ask me anything” question submissions.
But particularly for service-based businesses, what’s the power of dialogue over monologue, having real conversations with real humans?
We get out of the echo chamber - particularly relevant right now given the state of some of the social media platforms (aka the exodus from X)
We listen and react in real time (instead of just shouting into the void), combining the power of evergreen and long-lasting content as well as being nimble with our customers’ needs.
We keep retention high, because we’re answering the questions coming up right now or the nuances applicable to our clients that we couldn’t address in a one-way platform
Our work is greater than the sum of its parts, because we bring different perspectives and strength to the work.
In today’s podcast, we’re diving into Dialogue over Monologue.
Why we might shy away from dialogue, but why Meg and Jessica chose this as a core Aggressively Human philosophy
When you might actually choose automation over dialogue
How dialogue reduces the gap between your ideas and real feedback (and why shouting into the void won’t get you there)
Why we decided to co-host this podcast (and how we rely on each other and other colleagues in our work)
The power of real time listening in order to pivot to the market (and keep making sales)
“I want to have a business that’s at the scale of dialogue. That’s the demarcating factor for me.” - Jessica
View the Full Show notes on our Substack:
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