What do you have in common with every other person, whether that person is a baby, a CEO, or maybe even homeless?

Time. We spend our 24 hours/day in a million different ways, but that’s all we have.

Time is free, but priceless. You can spend it, but you cannot store it. Once you have used it, you can never get it back.

Notice the info regarding timing of each portion of this symphony program

How do you use this commodity as communicators to gain traction?

⏰  At the symphony

Jimmy and I went to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra performance last weekend. Look at this pic of their program agenda. Everything, including the intermission, includes the length of time! Good job DSO!

⏰  At your screen

You scroll Linked In or Medium and you are given the time of how long it will take you to read each post.

You see the length of time it will take to watch a video.

You probably don’t click on anything that will take longer than 2 minutes.

⏰  In a speech

You start a speech by gaining your audience’s attention, with a story, great quote, a question, or an icebreaker exercise. You will also share a few bits of info about your audience and how you understand who they are and what value you’ll bring to them.

You will then share your Statement of Purpose and (you guessed it) the amount of time you’ll be speaking. (That’s what I’ve been coaching you to do!)

Example: “In the next 45 minutes I’ll be talking about how to communicate like duct tape – really get sticky with what you say.”

Later, I’ll call back to that sentence when I talk about how tiny our attention spans have become. I’ll ask, “What’s the purpose of this presentation?” A few will be able to reiterate my Purpose Statement.

I then ask, “How long is my speech?”

100% of the participants respond (always!!), “45 minutes”!

Guess what?

You don’t remember what I want you to remember.

You remember only what YOU want to remember.

And you REALLY want to know how long you’ll have to sit there listening to me!

⏰  For you

Be kind to your listeners – share how long your meeting will be or how long you’ll be speaking.

Be respectful to your listeners – stick to your time limit.

Be wise – understand that time is valuable, finite, and non-renewable.