all right hello so everybody my name is
Steve good to be here and this talk is
gonna be lit so I just learned that word
yesterday for the parents out there so
hopefully I use it correctly I don’t
even know so I want to start things by
by introducing you to a character from
the movie up the dog Doug my master made
me this collar so that my big talk
squirrel hi there
as you can see Doug has the attention
span of a net and I love this clip
because it reminds me of each and every
one of us right instead of being
distracted by squirrels were distracted
by cell phones text message where was I
okay so a recent study found that over
the past 15 years the human attention
span average attention span has dropped
from 12 seconds down to 8 seconds which
means no one’s paying attention anymore
that’s kind of a bummer I put a lot of
work into this talk so the other
interesting thing about that study was
they found that average goldfish has a
nine second attention span nine seconds
a little disturbing right so I dug
further into the research and I found
it’s not the best research study but the
problem is there’s not a lot of research
on attention span so but we can all
agree on probably one thing which is
that all of our attention spans are
declining at an exponential rate it’s
terrible and why is that because we’re
in a battle for attention spend it’s a
war out there everybody’s trying to get
our eyeballs there’s all these different
things happening right whether it’s HBO
Netflix Instagram texting snap BuzzFeed
you reddit YouTube Twitter all these
different things are grabbing our
attention I don’t know about you but
when I turn on Netflix to chill what
happens I turn on a show and if it
doesn’t grab me within two minutes not
watching it yeah alright so I spend more
time scrolling than I do chill in it
it’s ridiculous so why do we effectively
have a hard time keeping people engaged
well there’s a couple different things
that I hear the first thing is I don’t
have the tools or the skill set to keep
people engaged
good thing is well people don’t listen
anymore people are lazy they’re on their
phones and I don’t want us to use either
either of these excuses cuz the game has
changed we live in a world where phones
aren’t going away so we have to step up
our ability to engage and interact with
people and the thing is we’ve been
spoiled we’ve never had to work for
people’s attention span so we feel
entitled to it we now have to work for
it so what’s the secret how can you keep
people engaged a really great kiss
you know the type where the silver foil
wrapper comes off and the chocolate
melts in your mouth what were you
thinking about sir were you thinking
about I don’t know french kissing Megan
out snogging or as they say in Australia
a posh mate pash so that’s the acronym
we’re gonna use today to remember how to
keep people engaged pa SSH what that
stands for is passion analogy succinct
stories and humour so that’s what we
need to use okay now let’s start with
the first one now I’m a leadership
consultant and I’ve coached leaders all
around the world and one of the things I
do is work on communication leadership
mindset and these are some key skills
that they use so we’ll start with the
first one P for passion I’m asked you
guys to pair up with the person next to
you and here’s what you’re gonna do
you’re gonna think about something
you’re really really passionate about so
it could be your family’s coming Netflix
could be talking about clipping toenails
just want to make sure you’re still with
me hopefully you’re still with yes
you’re still with me okay that’s good
you’re not going to talk about that
obviously but you’re gonna talk about it
in a way where you could care less so
you might go I love NBA basketball the
playoffs are coming it’s gonna be
absolutely amazing if you’re looking at
the stage the person on the right is
gonna talk the other one’s gonna listen
alright perfect you guys can stop just
right there now we’re gonna do we’re
gonna turn it on its head so what you’re
gonna do this time is you’re gonna talk
about something you could care less
about something that doesn’t matter to
you but you’re gonna talk about it with
a lot of passion okay so it could be
something like I love painting the house
there’s nothing I’d rather do than paint
the house on the weekend first you got
to neurotically prep so you tape every
corner and then you paint three coats so
your house stinks all weekend that’s
what I want to do I love painting
okay so do me a favor go ahead with the
person next to you same thing five
seconds go a lot of energy in this room
come on guys there we go loving that
energy okay you guys can stop right
there so the question is first as a
listener which one was easier to listen
to the first or the second definitely
the second so it’s easier for you to
listen to and then secondly what is the
interesting as thing as if you kept
talking you’d find that you were also
probably passion about that thing I
believe oh my gosh paintings not so bad
maybe I like painting I’m gonna go paint
right now so you start to get interested
in what you’re actually talking about
now I’m not telling you to be an
exaggerated Broadway star to be like hi
I’m Steven let’s talk about taxes April
15th coming that’s all I’m saying saying
if you can increase your passion just a
little bit and there’s lots of ways to
display passion it could be a lot of
movement I can be talking really quickly
and sharing some ideas it can be smiling
it could be gestures if you’d be
movement all these different things it
could be words inflection voice words
are powerful that’s amazing
life-changing incredible so you express
passion the way that works for you but
do it just a bit more and get out of
your comfort zone
why does passion work because it makes
it easier for the listener a analogies
complex stuff is boring and if you have
the skill to make complex stuff
interesting you’re incredibly talented
this man right here john oliver from HBO
incredibly gifted at it he’s talked
about crypto currencies net neutrality
and all this complex stuff what’s one of
his secret tools analogies why do
analogies work because they make the
unfamiliar familiar because you’re
talking about
something I can connect with something I
can relate to something I understand and
one of my personal favorite analogy is
if words are a lot like toothpaste once
you squeeze toothpaste out of the can
you can’t put it back in so be careful
what you say so why do analogies work
because they make you relatable being
succinct which is really getting to the
point now imagine I put a slide like
this up and I said I want to introduce
you to tell you a little bit about
myself how do you feel overwhelmed
exhausted annoyed irritated right that’s
a terrible thing and so the interesting
thing is how do we feel when people
ramble this is exactly how it feels when
people just go on and on and on so
what’s the secret this man right here
holds the secret
this is Blaise Pascal a mathematician
from the 1600s he said I would have
written you a shorter letter but I
didn’t have the time so ironically if
you want to speak less or say less you
have to prep more and spend more time on
it like writing a paper editing reducing
it down and if you want your succinct
words to be really impactful you got to
use signal words in conclusion if
there’s one thing you want to focus on
if you’re gonna take away a key point or
mom can I have money those signal works
tend to work really well so why does
being succinct to work because it’s
signals less is more then we have
stories
who doesn’t love stories as long as
there’s boring but you know it’s really
boring commercials commercials are
boring the Journal of marketing research
found that the best commercials weren’t
those with you know the beautiful
actresses and Hollywood people nor
puppies the best commercials were the
ones with the most compelling plots and
stories as human beings we love stories
are ingrained in our DNA so why do we
love him because they ignite emotion and
stories don’t have to be long to ignite
emotion I won’t tell your story about my
friend John lives in New York City alone
but 10 months ago he was sleeping really
hot the apartment got really hot kept
one leg out of his cover and
can’t touch this foot ooh creepy freaky
fortunately that’s not a true story but
you can see just in that moment a
feeling was created stories there’s
things we talk about we want to share we
want to feel so why do stories work
because they ignite emotion then we’ve
got humor yes that is a dog learning
about chasing cars but one of the things
I love is Mark Twain said humor is
humankind’s greatest gift
humors incredible I love it it resets
the attention span helps you focus
activates learning centers of the brain
and it makes most things in life more
enjoyable but the thing is being funny
and making people laugh or using humor
can be tough however there’s some key
strategies you can use whether it’s
being sarcastic potentially physical
humor wit jokes things like that I’ll
give you a couple examples self
deprecation so uh I’ve been working out
huh
don’t worry if you can’t tell neither
can anybody else okay or a pun I asked
the Frenchman what video game he loved
he said we it’s an Internet joke I’m not
gonna claim property on that one and
then another one what about observations
you make have you ever noticed there’s
certain professions where you can’t
smile like a surgeon you don’t want the
guy coming in so we’re gonna open you up
cut you up huh how’s that gonna go it’s
gonna be good right probably not gonna
work so with humor that thing is it’s
advanced so you want to think about your
audience there’s certain people and
types of situations where maybe PAH
humor isn’t appropriate you know dad
jokes probably aren’t always funny from
time to time and the thing is you want
to be smart about that but if you test
it out with the right audience and
someone says it’s good that means it’s
good I just learned that one yesterday
too so go ahead and try something so why
does humor work because it’s refreshing
so I don’t leave you with this think
about an orchestra where there’s all
these different instruments you’ve got
the brass you’ve got the percussion
you’ve got strings and communication is
a lot like this imagine if you watch the
orchestra play and you just saw these
instruments sitting around but one
instrument was being played you’d be
interested for a little while so then
you get bored and move on so if we’re
gonna keep people engaged we have to use
all of our communication instruments
whether it’s passion analogy succinct
story humor
more and we have to infuse it in how we
speak and we have to earn that right for
people’s attention because it’s valuable
so on encourage you guys all to go out
there and passion one thank you so much
guys [Applause]
Steve good to be here and this talk is
gonna be lit so I just learned that word
yesterday for the parents out there so
hopefully I use it correctly I don’t
even know so I want to start things by
by introducing you to a character from
the movie up the dog Doug my master made
me this collar so that my big talk
squirrel hi there
as you can see Doug has the attention
span of a net and I love this clip
because it reminds me of each and every
one of us right instead of being
distracted by squirrels were distracted
by cell phones text message where was I
okay so a recent study found that over
the past 15 years the human attention
span average attention span has dropped
from 12 seconds down to 8 seconds which
means no one’s paying attention anymore
that’s kind of a bummer I put a lot of
work into this talk so the other
interesting thing about that study was
they found that average goldfish has a
nine second attention span nine seconds
a little disturbing right so I dug
further into the research and I found
it’s not the best research study but the
problem is there’s not a lot of research
on attention span so but we can all
agree on probably one thing which is
that all of our attention spans are
declining at an exponential rate it’s
terrible and why is that because we’re
in a battle for attention spend it’s a
war out there everybody’s trying to get
our eyeballs there’s all these different
things happening right whether it’s HBO
Netflix Instagram texting snap BuzzFeed
you reddit YouTube Twitter all these
different things are grabbing our
attention I don’t know about you but
when I turn on Netflix to chill what
happens I turn on a show and if it
doesn’t grab me within two minutes not
watching it yeah alright so I spend more
time scrolling than I do chill in it
it’s ridiculous so why do we effectively
have a hard time keeping people engaged
well there’s a couple different things
that I hear the first thing is I don’t
have the tools or the skill set to keep
people engaged
good thing is well people don’t listen
anymore people are lazy they’re on their
phones and I don’t want us to use either
either of these excuses cuz the game has
changed we live in a world where phones
aren’t going away so we have to step up
our ability to engage and interact with
people and the thing is we’ve been
spoiled we’ve never had to work for
people’s attention span so we feel
entitled to it we now have to work for
it so what’s the secret how can you keep
people engaged a really great kiss
you know the type where the silver foil
wrapper comes off and the chocolate
melts in your mouth what were you
thinking about sir were you thinking
about I don’t know french kissing Megan
out snogging or as they say in Australia
a posh mate pash so that’s the acronym
we’re gonna use today to remember how to
keep people engaged pa SSH what that
stands for is passion analogy succinct
stories and humour so that’s what we
need to use okay now let’s start with
the first one now I’m a leadership
consultant and I’ve coached leaders all
around the world and one of the things I
do is work on communication leadership
mindset and these are some key skills
that they use so we’ll start with the
first one P for passion I’m asked you
guys to pair up with the person next to
you and here’s what you’re gonna do
you’re gonna think about something
you’re really really passionate about so
it could be your family’s coming Netflix
could be talking about clipping toenails
just want to make sure you’re still with
me hopefully you’re still with yes
you’re still with me okay that’s good
you’re not going to talk about that
obviously but you’re gonna talk about it
in a way where you could care less so
you might go I love NBA basketball the
playoffs are coming it’s gonna be
absolutely amazing if you’re looking at
the stage the person on the right is
gonna talk the other one’s gonna listen
alright perfect you guys can stop just
right there now we’re gonna do we’re
gonna turn it on its head so what you’re
gonna do this time is you’re gonna talk
about something you could care less
about something that doesn’t matter to
you but you’re gonna talk about it with
a lot of passion okay so it could be
something like I love painting the house
there’s nothing I’d rather do than paint
the house on the weekend first you got
to neurotically prep so you tape every
corner and then you paint three coats so
your house stinks all weekend that’s
what I want to do I love painting
okay so do me a favor go ahead with the
person next to you same thing five
seconds go a lot of energy in this room
come on guys there we go loving that
energy okay you guys can stop right
there so the question is first as a
listener which one was easier to listen
to the first or the second definitely
the second so it’s easier for you to
listen to and then secondly what is the
interesting as thing as if you kept
talking you’d find that you were also
probably passion about that thing I
believe oh my gosh paintings not so bad
maybe I like painting I’m gonna go paint
right now so you start to get interested
in what you’re actually talking about
now I’m not telling you to be an
exaggerated Broadway star to be like hi
I’m Steven let’s talk about taxes April
15th coming that’s all I’m saying saying
if you can increase your passion just a
little bit and there’s lots of ways to
display passion it could be a lot of
movement I can be talking really quickly
and sharing some ideas it can be smiling
it could be gestures if you’d be
movement all these different things it
could be words inflection voice words
are powerful that’s amazing
life-changing incredible so you express
passion the way that works for you but
do it just a bit more and get out of
your comfort zone
why does passion work because it makes
it easier for the listener a analogies
complex stuff is boring and if you have
the skill to make complex stuff
interesting you’re incredibly talented
this man right here john oliver from HBO
incredibly gifted at it he’s talked
about crypto currencies net neutrality
and all this complex stuff what’s one of
his secret tools analogies why do
analogies work because they make the
unfamiliar familiar because you’re
talking about
something I can connect with something I
can relate to something I understand and
one of my personal favorite analogy is
if words are a lot like toothpaste once
you squeeze toothpaste out of the can
you can’t put it back in so be careful
what you say so why do analogies work
because they make you relatable being
succinct which is really getting to the
point now imagine I put a slide like
this up and I said I want to introduce
you to tell you a little bit about
myself how do you feel overwhelmed
exhausted annoyed irritated right that’s
a terrible thing and so the interesting
thing is how do we feel when people
ramble this is exactly how it feels when
people just go on and on and on so
what’s the secret this man right here
holds the secret
this is Blaise Pascal a mathematician
from the 1600s he said I would have
written you a shorter letter but I
didn’t have the time so ironically if
you want to speak less or say less you
have to prep more and spend more time on
it like writing a paper editing reducing
it down and if you want your succinct
words to be really impactful you got to
use signal words in conclusion if
there’s one thing you want to focus on
if you’re gonna take away a key point or
mom can I have money those signal works
tend to work really well so why does
being succinct to work because it’s
signals less is more then we have
stories
who doesn’t love stories as long as
there’s boring but you know it’s really
boring commercials commercials are
boring the Journal of marketing research
found that the best commercials weren’t
those with you know the beautiful
actresses and Hollywood people nor
puppies the best commercials were the
ones with the most compelling plots and
stories as human beings we love stories
are ingrained in our DNA so why do we
love him because they ignite emotion and
stories don’t have to be long to ignite
emotion I won’t tell your story about my
friend John lives in New York City alone
but 10 months ago he was sleeping really
hot the apartment got really hot kept
one leg out of his cover and
can’t touch this foot ooh creepy freaky
fortunately that’s not a true story but
you can see just in that moment a
feeling was created stories there’s
things we talk about we want to share we
want to feel so why do stories work
because they ignite emotion then we’ve
got humor yes that is a dog learning
about chasing cars but one of the things
I love is Mark Twain said humor is
humankind’s greatest gift
humors incredible I love it it resets
the attention span helps you focus
activates learning centers of the brain
and it makes most things in life more
enjoyable but the thing is being funny
and making people laugh or using humor
can be tough however there’s some key
strategies you can use whether it’s
being sarcastic potentially physical
humor wit jokes things like that I’ll
give you a couple examples self
deprecation so uh I’ve been working out
huh
don’t worry if you can’t tell neither
can anybody else okay or a pun I asked
the Frenchman what video game he loved
he said we it’s an Internet joke I’m not
gonna claim property on that one and
then another one what about observations
you make have you ever noticed there’s
certain professions where you can’t
smile like a surgeon you don’t want the
guy coming in so we’re gonna open you up
cut you up huh how’s that gonna go it’s
gonna be good right probably not gonna
work so with humor that thing is it’s
advanced so you want to think about your
audience there’s certain people and
types of situations where maybe PAH
humor isn’t appropriate you know dad
jokes probably aren’t always funny from
time to time and the thing is you want
to be smart about that but if you test
it out with the right audience and
someone says it’s good that means it’s
good I just learned that one yesterday
too so go ahead and try something so why
does humor work because it’s refreshing
so I don’t leave you with this think
about an orchestra where there’s all
these different instruments you’ve got
the brass you’ve got the percussion
you’ve got strings and communication is
a lot like this imagine if you watch the
orchestra play and you just saw these
instruments sitting around but one
instrument was being played you’d be
interested for a little while so then
you get bored and move on so if we’re
gonna keep people engaged we have to use
all of our communication instruments
whether it’s passion analogy succinct
story humor
more and we have to infuse it in how we
speak and we have to earn that right for
people’s attention because it’s valuable
so on encourage you guys all to go out
there and passion one thank you so much
guys [Applause]
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