Who are you talking to?

I heard a great interview this week with Sam Simon, co-founder of The Simpsons (not a bad thing to have on the CV … The Simpsons was named by Time Magazine as the best series of the 20th century).

He was talking about writing the first series, and he said he wanted to get Tom Gammill and Max Pross to write for the show. But they took another gig.

(As an aside, you’d think anyone who turned down a job writing for the first series of the Simpsons would be ready to shoot themselves, but considering the gig they took was with a show you might have heard of – Seinfeld – they’re probably OK with it. And they did end up writing on subsequent series of The Simpsons.)

So when Sam was creating that first series, he had Tom and Max in mind as his audience. With the other writers who came on board, he said your job is to write something that Tom and Max will like. They are our target.

I think that is really smart, to be as specific as possible about who you are talking to … even down to having a specific person in mind. Whether you’re writing a book, creating a program, penning a blog or putting together some sales copy, it will be better if you are very clear about exactly who you are talking too.

Love to hear your thoughts about the Sam’s approach, The Simpsons or life in general – you can leave them below.