I've worked with a lot of brands over more than three decades. Today, when I'm asked for the crucial insights that every brand should know, I offer these two points:

• We are all overwhelmed by the amount of information assaulting us

• You're not as interesting as you think you are.

Let's unpack those a bit. First, nobody has the time or patience to work at getting to know your brand. That doesn't mean that if you are a shoe seller all you have to do is say, "We sell shoes!" Sure, that's absolutely clear. But there are a ton of shoe sellers out there telling us that they sell shoes. It's just noise to us if we don't understand why we should care.

Second, you probably have a list of things about your brand that you believe people will find interesting. So then why does it feel like hard work to get them to give you the time of day? I'm guessing because most of those things on your list are about you. Sure, people will eventually want to know about those things, but it's a long haul to getting them there. And at that point, they're just checking off the boxes to confirm that they're making a good decision. Long before that, they want to know why they should care. Care enough to listen to your message among the tsunami of information they are dealing with. Care enough to want to know more.

See the theme developing here? It's all about giving them a reason to care.

How your brand can say something meaningful

To get people to care about your brand, you have to say something meaningful. To them.

What's meaningful to them? It's not your list of features. Again, they don't have the bandwidth to figure out why they should care. They give their precious attention to things that help them see the meaning it will bring to their lives.

There are two simple rules I have that can exponentially improve the chances of your brand connecting with someone in a meaningful way.

1. Help them learn something

I intentionally did not say 'teach them something'. This isn't about us imparting what we believe they should know. Rather, we should understand the challenge or opportunity they have in front of them. Then give them meaningful help that's relevant to their situation and relevant coming from our brand. Think about the valuable help you can offer those you hope to serve.

2. Help them feel something

We all make decisions with our hearts. The head is simply there to rationalize why the heart made that decision. If we want to connect with people in a real and meaningful way, then we need to go through the heart. Think about brands that help you feel connected. Or comforted. Or like you're doing something good for those around you.  Those are powerful feelings that a brand can create (as long as the intent is relevant to the brand and non-manipulative). Find the way you can help someone feel something like that and you will create a truly meaningful connection.

The amount of information coming at the average person is not slowing down. There is nothing we can do about that. But we can make sure we are not adding to the flood of noise. We can make sure we are showing those we hope to serve the real and genuine ways that our brand can help them. We can make it less about what we want to say and more about what they want to hear. In other words, we can say something meaningful.