On Monday, Jason and Travis Kelce won Podcast of the Year at the iHeartPodcast awards for New Heights, their joint podcast about football and life in the NFL. Jason, 36, recently retired as center and co-captain of the Philadelphia Eagles. Travis, 34, is tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, who just won the Super Bowl for the third time. If that weren’t stardom enough, he’s also famous for his romantic relationship with Taylor Swift.

That relationship is a likely explanation for the brothers’ podcast winning the award, a fact they cheerfully acknowledged in the video they made thanking iHeartPodcast. “This is an incredible honor, especially for two jabronis like us,” Jason said in the video. “To receive an award like this is beyond humbling. And we would be remiss if we didn’t immediately thank all of the 92-percenters out there, a.k.a. Swifties, who voted for us to win this award.” It sounds simple enough, but that sentence was actually a very, very clever thing to say — and a great lesson in emotional intelligence and in how to connect with your customers.

Those who’ve watched or listened to New Heights know that the brothers routinely refer to their fans as “92-percenters.” Apparently this is because of a comment Jason made during the first season, that a quarterback sneak works 92 percent of the time. (The quarterback sneak is a play in which, rather than passing the ball, the quarterback takes the snap and then charges ahead, along with the offensive line. It’s used in situations where a team only needs to advance a yard or so. It’s unknown whether it actually works 92 percent of the time, since Jason apparently invented that statistic on the spot.)

The Kelce brothers started calling their fans “92-percenters” during the show’s first season. That was way before Travis complained on the podcast that he didn’t get to meet Swift when he attended an Eras concert — or execute his plan to give her a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it. She heard about the comment and the two reportedly began dating a short while after that.

Back then, New Heights was certainly popular, but its audience more than quadrupled after Swift and Travis Kelce made their relationship public. That audience, which used to be two-thirds men, is now evenly divided between men and women. Clearly, many Swifties decided to check out the show after learning that Swift and Travis Kelce were an item. Then they kept on watching or listening, likely because the brothers are very entertaining, Travis in particular is extremely handsome (he also models), and every once in a while, he talks about Swift. Not only that, but the podcast is a whole education in football and what it’s like to play in the NFL.

What Kelce fans have in common.

So here’s what’s clever about what Jason said. You might have expected the brothers to thank the 92-percenters and the Swifties who voted for them in large enough numbers that they won the award. Instead, Jason called them “92 percenters, a.k.a. Swifties.” In other words, in his mind, the two groups are one and the same. If you love Swift, then you also care about Travis Kelce, because she cares about him. And you care about football — the Kansas City Chiefs in particular — because she cares about them too. Likewise, if you’re a fan of the Kelce brothers, then you are also in some way a Swiftie, because Travis cares about her, and his coach says their relationship has made him a “better man.”

So often we work to segment our customers, seeking to divide them according to their needs and desires so that we can serve each one whatever they want. That can be a very effective approach. But sometimes it’s useful to remind your fans of the one thing they all have in common — that they are your fans. And to bring them together, making them feel like one community, rather than divide them up.

There’s a growing audience of Inc.com readers who receive a daily text from me with a self-care or motivational micro-challenge or tip. Often, they text me back and we wind up in a conversation. (Want to learn more? Here’s some information about the texts and a special invitation to a two-month free trial.) Many are successful entrepreneurs or business leaders who know how important it is both to make customers feel appreciated and to treat them like one big community. The Kelces’ thank-you message is a perfect example of doing just that.