I’ve been thinking about how to start this Nugget. What might I say, that would capture your attention enough to read the next sentence?
It didn’t used to be like that. I used to just write, and then publish what I’ve written. Get some thoughts out there, and see what happens. Until Martin really urged me to put more line breaks (like, a LOT more line breaks) and to really make every sentence count. .
At first I fought hard against accepting that this is true. Surely readers would give you a bit of slack to build up an argument. Surely they’d stay with you for a paragraph that’s more than 5 lines long. Surely you wouldn’t simply disappear to chase the next shiny thing if one of these sentences isn’t doing it for you…
Well, while this may be true for you, it sure doesn’t seem to be for a fast-growing number of people.
A client of mine is currently figuring out how TikTok works because his band blew up on there, and they can no longer ignore it. And it’s clear to me that this platform isn’t just built forpeople with short attention spans: TikTok intentionally makes it worse. It’s like a slot machine, feeding you 60-second content, and if what you see isn’t capturing you after a few seconds, you’re out! NEXT!!
I’m not immune to this. The YouTube Shorts concept is the same and keeps me hooked in more often than I feel comfortable to admit.
It opened up a question for me:
I can’t quite decide whether I’m feeding into a concerning trend, or whether I’m doing people a favour by writing these Nuggets in a much more bite-sized style (pun intended, and yes, ironic, I know!).
I really like long-form content. I do! Many of my podcasts are over 2 hours long. But for 2023 I’m working to draw out all those 1-minute content Nuggets, and drip feed them into YouTube Shorts. Does that make me part of the problem? Or is this a smart thing to engage people these days, in an effort to help them be better coaches, better people, and better leaders? Maybe even encourage them to sit down and be part of a “proper conversation”, mindfully…
Similarly, my consultations are up to 2 hours long and I block 2 hours for most sessions. Might much shorter sessions serve the next generation more? Who offers 15min coaching calls?
Curious what you think about this…
New content
Most coaches commit to showing up for their clients. Some show up so much that they’re coaching clients even when they’re really quite ill or would much rather hide under a blanket for one reason or another. What’s yourthreshold for cancelling a coaching session? How ill do you need to get to say “I can’t make it today”. What might the fallout be? And how might we make those decisions? Due to present circumstances, this and more is what Nicki, Siawash and I discuss in this episode. You’ll find the podcast on YouTube and all major podcasting platforms.
___
That’s it for this week! If any of this resonates, make it swing! I’d love to hear from you 🙂
And if you’d like to get these Nuggets straight into your inbox, you can sign up for weekly emails, or get the full buffet once a month(ish).
With Love
Yannick
