Before we get into it, a request: If you bought my recently published book, Heart Centered Business, and have read it enough to give it a review online, it would be such a gift!
If you do it now, I’ll wait here. Go to the website where you purchased it, scroll down to where it says “leave a review.” If you leave a brief review, and (hopefully) a 5 star rating, it really does help make the book more visible to others. Thank you!!!
Okay, on with the show…
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When you create content for your business, please ditch the preamble. If you aren’t diving right in, you are losing readers/watchers.
Did you ever notice how a good book starts? Or a popular article or video, or even your favorite show or movie? That’s right, they dive right in.
Within ten seconds, or a couple of sentences, you know the point. You know why you’re there. Yes, there are some exceptions, and for those exceptions someone has to have excellent story-telling skills to keep you interested.
For those of us who don’t have that level of story-telling skill, allow yourself to just get to the point.
For instance, in this article, you knew what it was about in the first two sentences. You know why you’re reading it, you can immediately tell why it’s relevant, or not… in which case you probably haven’t read this far.
This is not about attention-deficit or bemoaning the issues of the internet age. This is just about kindness and care for your audience. We all have busy lives, we all have a lot to attend to. I don’t really want to spend my precious time reading or watching something that isn’t relevant to me.
Recently, one of my sons and I wanted to listen to a podcast about someone who had worked on the creative team for WWE, the professional wrestling organization. We were really interested in this. Yet, unfortunately, the podcast hosts just joked about nothing for several minutes. Which might be fine, except it wasn’t interesting to listen to, it was just two guys we didn’t know joking around.
Then, when they introduced the guest, they joked around with him. And then wanted him to talk about how he first became interested in wrestling. As a kid.
I don’t want to speak badly of these folks. But, I do want to point out that we were more than eight minutes into the podcast, and zero time had been spent on the topic of the podcast. We were bored, we left.
That kind of joking around is wonderful to do with friends. It’s unfocused, no-topic conversation that is just about enjoying each other’s company. Absolutely wonderful, necessary, fulfilling part of life.
Except, we didn’t know these guys. We weren’t there for that.
I know that preamble does help you settle in, as the content creator. It helps you forget you’re writing something, or you’re on video, and lets you access a more natural part of yourself. That is all very useful for you as process.
Use it to help you access yourself, if you need to. Then edit it out, before you send it out into the world.
If you’re willing, I’d love to see your examples of getting to the point of your topic immediately. And, if you feel like being vulnerable, compare it with any preamble you might have included.
When you do get right to the point, what do you notice?
With love,
Mark Silver, M.Div.
Heart of Business, Inc.
Every act of business can be an act of love.
Save the date: Friday November 3 – Virtual Retreat
The events in the world have been intense. And, I’ve noticed how hard it can be for me to connect deeply in my heart to my own wisdom.
Six times per year I lead a Virtual Retreat for our Learning Community, and they’ve been surprisingly profound.
Less often I lead one that is publicly accessible, that you can join without being part of our community.
I’ll be leading one on November 3, and if you can clear the day, that’s fantastic. And if you can’t clear the day, but still participate in part of it, it can still be really powerful.
Once we’re ready for people to register, we’ll get you more information. For now, just save the date: Friday, November 3.
