You’ve never met them.
You haven’t shared a coffee, attended their event, or had a conversation.
But another video appears, and you stop scrolling.
You recognize the voice. You have a sense of what they care about. You want to hear how they’ll answer the question.
Somewhere along the way, a stranger became familiar.
How does that happen?
I’ve been thinking about this while watching Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed.
I’ll put my cards on the table: I find both compelling. But as a host and producer, I’m also fascinated by the experience of encountering them through media.
What makes me stay? What am I learning about them beyond the words? And why do some videos feel like another advertisement, while others feel like another encounter with a person?
Zohran gave people more ways to get to know him
Mamdani’s campaign videos placed him inside recognizable New York experiences: discussing small-business policy in a deli, explaining affordability through everyday costs, and walking the length of Manhattan.
Fast Company’s analysis of his 2025 primary campaign describes how those settings, humor, and multilingual communication helped make his message accessible.
That matters to me because the setting does some of the storytelling.
A conversation about the cost of living feels different when it takes place where people buy lunch, work, commute, and spend their money.
The issue has a location. The person has somewhere to stand besides behind a podium.
And viewers have more to notice: how he interacts, how he explains, whether he seems comfortable with the people around him.
Each encounter gives an audience another detail from which to form an impression.
One video might introduce him. Another reveals his humor. A third lets someone hear an issue they care about explained in language that feels familiar.
Those impressions won’t be the same for everyone. But there’s a person to respond to, and more than one opportunity to encounter him.
Familiarity needs something consistent underneath it
A varied collection of videos can still communicate a recognizable point of view.
In a campaign retrospective shared by members of Mamdani’s team, they describe listening to people’s concerns and developing simple, repeatable messaging around affordability. They also emphasize the relationship between communication and sustained, in-person organizing.
The videos existed alongside conversations, community relationships, and work on the ground. Reducing the campaign to clever content would leave out much of what the team says mattered.
My takeaway is that the message gave the creative work direction.
Different setting. Different conversation. A recognizable concern running through it.
Consistency gives people something to associate with you. Variety gives them reasons to keep watching.
That’s worth thinking about when we feel pressure to come up with something entirely new every time we speak.
Sometimes a familiar concern deserves another story, another explanation, or another person’s perspective.
Abdul shows what a single exchange can reveal
With Abdul El-Sayed, I’m interested in a different kind of encounter: watching someone respond when a conversation becomes difficult.
A prepared introduction tells us what a person wants us to know. A challenging exchange gives us more to observe.
There’s the pause before an answer. The choice to question an assumption. The way someone explains a position under pressure.
In an October 2026 interview with The New Republic, El-Sayed discusses a widely circulated town-hall exchange and his approach to responding to political attacks.
People can interpret the same exchange differently. What interests me as a producer is how a recorded interaction lets an audience form an impression of someone’s judgment, temperament, and priorities.
We get to watch a person respond.
A LinkedIn bio can list your strengths. A difficult conversation gives people a chance to see some of them.
With Mamdani, I’m drawn to how familiarity can develop across many encounters. With El-Sayed, I’m interested in how one exchange can give people a reason to look more closely.
Neither gives us the whole person. A clip is a selected moment, a window, with plenty still outside the frame.
The camera lets an encounter travel
This is one of the things I love about media.
A conversation happens in one place. Through video, people elsewhere can experience part of it.
They hear the words, but they also hear the delivery. They notice the expression. They see what happens when a question lands.
Then they send it to someone else.
- “Watch this.”
- “Have you seen this guy?”
- “This is what I’ve been trying to explain.”
For someone who connects with the message, sharing becomes a way to express something about their own concerns or values.
That’s where media can enter culture: a conversation becomes a reference people use with each other.
Sometimes we share because we agree. Sometimes we’re surprised. Sometimes someone has finally found the words for something we’ve been struggling to say.
A moment that belonged to the people in the room becomes part of someone else’s conversation.
The view count tells us how far something traveled. Understanding why people cared requires looking more closely.
Looking natural can take considerable work
There’s another lesson here for anyone who watches a good video and thinks, “We should just do that.”
Mamdani’s campaign worked with filmmakers and a production team. Reporting on the team behind the videos makes that creative effort visible.
The location, question, structure, camera, and edit all influence what an audience experiences.
A relaxed conversation can be carefully prepared. A spontaneous answer can emerge because someone asked a thoughtful question.
Effortless, it turns out, takes a lot of effort.
I think about this constantly as a host.
What question will move us beyond the rehearsed introduction? What example will make the idea understandable? Where should I follow the conversation instead of rushing to my next question?
And when should I stop talking?
A valuable professional skill. Occasionally a personal development exercise. 😊
Good production creates room for a person’s knowledge, personality, and perspective to come through.
Why does that feeling matter?
Sometimes a person becomes familiar because they explain something we’ve struggled to understand.
Sometimes they name an experience we thought was ours alone: feeling overlooked at work, caring for an aging parent while raising a family, or wondering who we’re becoming as life changes.
And sometimes it’s simpler. Their humor makes us laugh. Their curiosity draws us in. The way they listen makes us want to hear the answer.
We return because something in the encounter feels relevant to our own lives.
For a woman navigating a new chapter in her 40s, 50s, or 60s, that might be a conversation that expands her sense of what’s possible. It might be someone speaking honestly about an experience she rarely hears discussed.
No single voice will speak to every woman. But a specific, honest conversation can give someone the feeling: “There’s room for my experience here.”
That’s a meaningful kind of attention.
What does this have to do with your business?
If you own a business or lead an organization, you’re also asking people to make room for your voice.
Imagine someone encountering you several times before reaching out.
- FirstThey hear you explain a concern they recognize.
- LaterThey watch you discuss a difficult decision.
- ThenSomeone shares a conversation in which your values become clearer.
By the time they contact you, they may already have a sense of your approach.
That’s especially meaningful when your work touches something personal: health, identity, family, relationships, financial confidence, or a significant life transition.
People may be wondering:
- Will this person understand me?
- Can I ask a question without feeling judged?
- Do they recognize what matters in my life?
A thoughtful conversation can give them something concrete to consider.
And for those of us creating the media, there’s another question: Are we making room for the people we hope to serve, or mostly talking about ourselves?
The lesson I take from Mamdani and El-Sayed is that communication becomes more compelling when we can observe a person thinking, explaining, listening, and responding.
Expertise gives you something to contribute. Media gives people a way to encounter it.
Give people a reason to return
Familiarity alone doesn’t establish competence, integrity, or trustworthiness. Repetition can make almost anyone recognizable.
The more useful goal is to become familiar for something that matters.
Whether you’re a viewer, a business owner, or someone finding the courage to share more of your own voice, consider:
- Whose voice have you made room for in your life, and what keeps bringing you back?
- What do they help you understand or put into words?
- If you lead a business or organization, what do you want people to understand about your work?
- Which stories reveal how you think, listen, and make decisions?
- What might someone recognize about their own life in a conversation with you?
The people we return to give us reasons to keep listening.
Sometimes it’s insight. Sometimes it’s laughter. Sometimes it’s the feeling that someone has noticed a part of life we thought everyone else was overlooking.
The first time, we may simply stop scrolling.
Over time, we begin to recognize a perspective. We become curious about what that person will say next.
And eventually, we hear something and think:
“I wish I could have this conversation with them.”
We haven’t met.
But something human has already reached us.