…

Time.

It’s so mysterious.

Research shows “you have just six seconds to capture someone’s attention — but if you interest them, you earn another twenty to thirty seconds.“

“Practically, this means you have about thirteen words to hook them and another thirty to forty to deliver your most compelling information.” *(Farnum Street: Brain Food)

The whole point of show prep is to keep editing what you’re going to say until you’ve created an opening that grabs listeners by the ears and doesn’t let them go.

Your first few words have to be powerful.

Are they?

How much time do you spend thinking about those specific words and how they will land in a listener’s ear?

The rest of the words you choose in the bit, and the total length of the bit matter too, but give yourself the very best chance to seduce them into actually listening to you.

Knock me down with those first 13 words!