The Slate of Traits That Make Talent Great

You know what builds your brand and can’t be duplicated? Having interesting, engaging, electric people on your air. People like those we’ve seen at parties everyone is gathered around.

I recently hosted a session for the NAB. The shows featured in the session were asked to finish this sentence: Great talent are…

Check out this list of adjectives describing talent a cut above. How many of these qualities do your talent have? When talking with talent to add to your station, are you screening for these? I’d love you to add to this list below. What’s missing? E-mail it to me here.

Great talent are…

Vulnerable
Fun/Funny
Curious
Fearless
Don’t take themselves too seriously
Know who they are
Have a high work ethic
Have a confident vision for their show
Are humble
Have a heart
Can relate to the audience
Mischievous
Memorable
Inquisitive about everything
Knowledgeable about the world
Give back to their community
Honest
Genuine
Authentic
Have balanced lives
Imaginative
Wonder about the world
Understand that a win is “we not me”
Know a little about a lot of things and a lot about a few things Have stories to tell
Have multiple skill sets
Radiate wattage without saying anything

Interesting people are interested people – folks who have interests outside of radio and vibrate with energy. The people you choose to be around in your life have many of these qualities above. It’s the same way you build a relationship with listeners – and how you turn listeners into fans who want to be around you.

Go find people with these X factors above. The slate of traits that make talent great. Develop them in those you already have on-the-air and listeners will gravitate to you, much like, in real life, you choose to be around friends who are like this, too.