Tell Me Your Story in 10 Seconds

As humans, we all are thirsty for relationships and strive to personalize every kind of bonding, whether it is with our family members, friends, devices or even with services delivered to us. In our subconscious, we strive for the story that helps us to personalize that bond. So, when we meet a person for the first time, our immediate curiosity is to learn about all the data points about that individual that helps us to paint a picture in our mind. Then we evaluate the need (or urge) of a potential relationship by the fidelity of that picture. The easier it is for us to connect all the dots cohesively, the stronger is the prospect of developing a relationship from the get-go. So, a good impactful story about our background, purpose, and goal to connect enables that networking opportunity to a higher degree.

The challenge is to create an impactful story and deliver it in the shortest possible time considering a depleting attention span available to you. Whether you are in an elevator, a networking event, a conference room, or at the airport terminal, you only have that much time to grab someone’s attention to move to the next level. It’s always a pitch and the quicker you are to lock one’s interest in you, the better are your chances to move to the next level of conversation.

Not long ago, when I decided to participate in networking activities, I always wondered about how to break the ice. How do I grab someone’s attention away from all other distractions? How much time is available to create a lasting (beyond those first few seconds) impression?

I felt that I have two challenges. First, condensing the story of my life and purpose in a nugget and then the time I got to deliver it. Over the last couple of years, I have realized that optimistically, we get only around 10 seconds to present that story! 10 seconds! It is even shorter than the elevator pitch we are taught in the MBA classes.

So, how will you craft your intent, background or personal brand in those few seconds? I myself kept on trying different ways to distill the big picture and the pain of doing that was like putting a square peg in a round hole. After numerous trials and errors at different events and mixers, I figured out that nobody is trying to learn about your entire life or your aspiring dreams in those first few seconds. What strikes most is a strong message that reflects your personality and ambition packaged in impactful words (vocabulary) that succinctly portray your intent to engage. A 10-second story is not about your life. It is about your personality. The words you select will define if you want to engage as a mercenary or a missionary. Your purpose ‘to be there at that time’ will transpire the interest in the person opposite to you.

‘Hi, I am Steve. I am here to meet people who can help me make my dream come true in next 48 hours’….

‘Hello, my name is Jason. I am a magician by interest and a dreamer by profession. What do you consider your biggest gift?

… and so on. Now, these are not the exact examples I have practiced, but you get the idea. It’s all about showcasing your intent while exuding confidence. And this also comes from practice. One good way of doing it is by writing down your story in no more than 250 words and then paring it down continuously until you have arrived at one sentence. It is doable.

That 10-second story is your personal brand. Additionally, that message is also a reflection of what you consider to be most important to you. It could be about creating products, raising money, providing services, showing magic (and I know someone who wants to do that as a profession in the middle of downtown Chicago), cooking great food or building blockchains!

So, keep trying and polishing that message every day. I aspire to hear all your 10-second stories when I meet you next time.