When I step on stage to speak, I get 8 seconds before the listener decides how to categorize me:
- worth attention, or
- time to check my mobile email
What are your first words?
When I meet someone at a conference, a party, an event… again – we have 8 seconds. Catch attention, or the other person is starting to scan the room for a more interesting conversation partner and beginning to plan her escape: “oh I must get a new drink”, “Is the toilet over there?”, “Oh I must say hello to Anna”…
In those 8 seconds, your whole life is judged on the power of your first words. What are they? There are 7 billion humans… how do you stand out as different? (you are different… but how to sum up a whole life in several words?)…
So often a speaker begins with:
- “Hi”
- “Good morning”
- “What’s up?”
How does that help differentiate from 3 billion?
In-different = Boring
What does stop us for a moment? What delays the escape routine of the listener?
There are 7 triggers of fascination. Brands, people, even you use these triggers every day. You have one that is your “primary” trigger. What is your “primary” trigger?
- Power – Take command of the environment
- Pasion – Attract with emotion, irrational, irresistible charm
- Mystique – Arousing curiosity
- Prestige – Increase respect, aspiration
- Alarm – Driving urgency
- Vice – Creativity, Deviation from the norm, See things differently
- Trust – Connection through consistency and predictability
Sally Hogshead explains the 7 triggers in her TEDx talk:
What do you think?
