I have to praise you like I should. ~ Fat Boy Slim
My son became a bar mitzvah this weekend and had to write and deliver his d’var torah – his interpretation of his Torah portion
Which he proceeded to draw comparisons with his passion over the past 5 years:
Dungeons & Dragons
Spoiler Alert: Everyone loved it
And said lots of nice things like:
“Loved the speech!”
“Great talk!”
“Mazel Tov!”
“So proud of Isaac!”
And then there were people who said things like:
“Amazing!”
But proceeded to talk about how much his talk
Meant to them
As D&D players.
It was this group that kept coming up to me all weekend long:
After the service
During the luncheon
Throughout the evening festivities
Whether they played the game as kids or still played as adults
The parents of Isaac’s friends wanted to talk about how:
They felt heard
Understood
And validated
But mostly, they just wanted
Needed
To talk
And talk
And talk
And talk
And talk
And talk
About their story.
If Isaac had delivered his d’var Torah
In front of a packed house at the Ramada
On behalf of his D&D consulting business
This latter group would be known as Isaac’s ideal target market.
TL;DR
You know you’ve found your audience
When they respond with maybe a word or two of high praise about your message
And then proceed to go on and on and on and on
About what it meant
To them.
I’m here,
Kevin