What need are you uniquely equipped to meet?

There’s a list written on the dry erase board in Chris Scotland’s office. It’s made up of phrases like “Thank you,” “You belong,” and “You’re doing a good job.”

Chris is our Creative Services Director, and we work together to write imaging for Life 107.1. During one writing session, we began talking about things people never get tired of hearing. We put together that list that now takes up a good-sized column along the right side of his dry erase board. Others in the office have contributed as well.

It’s amazing how our writing sessions have changed since putting this list together. The ideas have come more easily, and the ones we get have been stronger and more impactful. It could be that a simple change in how we approach a project has provided a nice jolt to our creative systems, but I’d like to think there’s a little more to it than that. When we put together this list, we essentially started asking ourselves what our listeners need that we are uniquely equipped to provide.

And as a radio station, I’d argue we are uniquely equipped to provide words of encouragement.

Fast forward to few weeks ago, and I got an email: “It’s time to have the discussion. How should Life 107.1 respond to the COVID-19 crisis?”

It was a daunting question at first. You hear a word like “pandemic,” and it just makes you feel small. We came up with a few ideas involving tweaks to the clocks, some special imaging pieces, advice to the on-air team about the kind of content we should lean into…and it was all good stuff, but it all felt fairly superficial.

Until I thought of that dry erase board in Chris Scotland’s office.

Once the question for our team became “What does Des Moines need that Life 107.1 is uniquely equipped to provide?” the really exciting ideas started flowing. Again, you could chalk it up to something else—maybe getting over the shock or having more time to think—but I’d like to think things changed once we started with the listener’s need rather than the places we could plug in some COVID-themed content.

It’s easy for me to start thinking of radio as a series of slots that need filling. We need to write another batch of liners, what goes in that slot? We’ve got a couple breaks left in this hour, what goes in those slots? We’ve got an opening for a new add, what goes in that slot?

They’re all questions that need to be answered, but those questions often share answers with “What do my listeners need that I am uniquely equipped to provide?” Sometimes, you’ll come up with the exact same answers. Sometimes, you’ll just come up with those answers a little faster. But sometimes, you come up with the kind of answers that help your listeners feel the hope, peace, and love they’ve been looking for.

And that’s kind of what we wanted to do with all those slots in the first place.