You only need ten seconds for a story in your presentation or marketing… honest!
I recently sat next to someone on the train who realised they were on the wrong train just after it left the station — despite having sat through the same destination-announcement three times before the train was moving. The panic; the rush; the grabbing of bags; the realisation it was too late; the frantic phone calls…
It’s an example of something I call the Ten Second Story. A TSS is that glorious moment when you can pretty much tell an entire story in just a few sentences and get the whole thing over in just ten seconds. They’re amazing for illustrating a point you’ve made, I think, because the listener’s brain short-cuts to this idea: if the whole story can be told in such a brief moment, it must be a remarkably common experience…
…and common experiences have a validity. People trust common things precisely because they’re common.
If you’ve made a point about, for example, your company’s marketing, or someone’s behaviour, and you can make it seem so ‘everyday’ as to only need a TSS, the implication is that it’s ubiquitous… particularly if you chain two TSS together.
Obviously the event in the story needs to stand out a bit, in order to be interesting, but the subconscious implication is that it’s such an obvious and simple cause-and-effect it would be daft not to act as you’re suggesting.
So how do you find TSSs for your presentation?
Well basically it comes down to this: really, and I mean realllllllly, pay attention to what’s going on around you.
Of course that’s easier said than done, because anyone who tries to pay attention to everything, all the time, goes crazy pretty fast, but there are a few things you can do to help.
#1 — take a moment every now and again. Use the first 30 seconds of a natural pause in your busy day to review what’s happened since your last such pause
#2 — it helps if you recite things out loud. The simple act of speaking (rather than just thinking) changes your perspective and the way you think about things and observe them
#3 — don’t ask yourself if anything interesting has happened because none of us like to think we’re special. Instead, ask yourself “What’s the least boring thing that’s happened?” (hat tip for Kennedy / Email Marketing Geek 🧠)
I’m not pretending that’s a comprehensive list, but try them out and see what happens, and how many more TSSs you find to use. I’d also love to know how you spot the TSSs in your day.
