As the title indicates, many people who think that they are dull and boring to others might not be so at all. They may be folks with many interesting things to share. The problem may simply be in approach and delivery.
Would you like to be a stimulating conversationalist?
Life of the party or, at least, not the wallflower?
Don’t say "never happen".
Read on
A young man lay in a hospital recovering from wounds sustained in World War I. He had an active inquisitive mind but was also a doer. Thus, he had never taken the time to read widely.
DeWitt Wallace now had plenty of time to read and was amazed at the horizons opening to him from his hospital confines. He reasoned that there must be millions of people like him who would read more if there was more time.
He came up with an idea for a publication wherein articles from other journals and sources could be condensed. Most of what he read was super for the direct target special interest audience but a little-maybe 20-30% cumbersome for a more general audience.
Dewitt tried all the top publishers and got ZERO interest in his idea. When he recovered, he and his bride, Lila Bell Acheson, produced the first issue in their own apartment. At 25 CENTS an issue, sold only by mail, they produced five thousand copies themselves.
That was February 5, 1922. By 1935 there were a million subscribers.
Today, Reader’s Digest is read by 100 MILLION EVERY MONTH and is published in a couple dozen languages.
You think you are boring?
You find others yawning when you chat…their minds wandering?
Maybe, YOU’RE not boring BUT the length, organization and succinctness of what you say DERAILS the interest.
What if ONE simple principle could turn that around for you ?
The principle can be described many ways…
Get to the point
Be short and sweet
Condense, condense, condense.
But, now, I’ll get to the point. Simply bear in mind that THE most successful magazine in history started with the idea of brevity and directness.
Someone asks: Okay, John, we take the point, but HOW?
The answer is twofold. Both have to do with preparation.
First, Readers Digest doesn’t try to create succinctly, it takes the elaborate and expansive and reduces from there. Think of sculpture. Think of making pie crusts. For many years I was on radio. During one stretch I changed from a 27 minute format to 12. I had to cut everything in half and, then, trim further.
Next, REHEARSE. That’s sounds scary. But it is an excellent exercise. I don’t do it anymore because I don’t have to. Once I got used to the purpose of rehearsal it became natural. Every time you tell a story you observe the audience. What can be jettisoned or compacted just hits you.
In other words, I never rehearse anymore because I am always rehearsing
FOOTNOTE: Do people constantly interrupt you? Maybe it’s not them. Maybe its because folks can’t tell where you are going, when you are pausing or when you are done.
Think of it, YOU may NOT be boring after all.
This is one in a series to help YOU, using delivery and language techniques to make your social life more satisfying.
Nostalgia John is an entertainer/public speaker. His mother was a nine year old immigrant who overcame the language barrier gloriously enough to become the editor of her high school newspaper. She passed love of the language along to John and his only sibling, who is one of the most accomplished academics in the world
ONE IN A SERIES OF HELPFUL ARTICLES. CHECK THE NOSTALGIA JOHN LOG
