{"id":1329,"date":"2019-05-21T17:21:49","date_gmt":"2019-05-21T15:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spectacularspeaking.com\/?p=1329"},"modified":"2019-07-06T17:35:48","modified_gmt":"2019-07-06T15:35:48","slug":"cut-the-strings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spectacularspeaking.com\/2019\/05\/21\/cut-the-strings\/","title":{"rendered":"Cut the Strings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From my book, PLUSPLUS – Patterns for Better Communication: (you can get your copy at Amazon<\/a>)
______
“Dinosaurs became extinct some 65 million years ago. I knew that. But did you know how many years dinosaurs populated this planet?
165,000,000 years.
Once I was reading Mark Twain\u2019s classic Letters from the Earth, and found another number that made me think a lot. When we look at the sky at night, we see bazillions of stars \u2014 300 sextillion (more or less) by the latest estimates. But light takes time to travel. If we could travel at light speed, 299,792,458 meters per second, it would take 3.6 years to reach the solar system that\u2019s closest to us.
Aren\u2019t we small?
So there is absolutely no need at all to make ourselves even smaller \u2014 but that\u2019s exactly what we do all the time, both in everyday communication and on stage.
99\u2153% of all business presentations in Spain start like this:
Hoy vamos a hablar un poco de nuestra empresa.
Today we\u2019re going to talk a little bit about our company. Hey! Wait just a minute \u2014 what do you mean, A little bit? \u00a1\u00bf\u00a1A little bit ? ! ?
Your company is your passion, your life, your future \u2014 why would you want to talk about it a little bit?
I refer to things like this as \u2018message reducers\u2019, and our vocabulary simply teems with them.
A little bit, little, small, short, simple, simply, quick, quickly, hopefully, probably, potentially, basically, actually, perhaps, maybe, could, should, would, ought to, think, believe, guess, try, want, pretty much, kind of, sort of, rather, quite \u2014
The list goes on \u2014 and on \u2014 and on. We are all world champions when it comes to diminishing our message \u2014 and ourselves.
Stop it!\u201c Cut the strings.
______
#publicspeaking#charisma#fminsights<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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