Another common wonder being too short. There was this time I gave a speech and the introduction was a little too long. So I made mine short and I got off the stage. Well, guess what? That's not a story. I said that in about 10 seconds.

But there's not enough there. You don't have a sense of the characters, the setting the problem, the resident, nothing. So that's a huge problem for a lot of people. They think they're adding stories, but they're only talking for 10 seconds. And they're just giving a couple of elements. People come to me all the time, say, TJ, teach me to be concise.

I want to be concise. They stand up, they speak. And their whole speeches two minutes and they try to cover nine points. They don't have a single story. Single, really interesting example and they sit down Well, they were concise. And then I asked people What does anyone remember from what this speaker just said?

Nothing. So, I want to change your thinking, I don't think your goal should ever be to be concise. Now, you don't want to go on and on and on that too many words and drown out your message. But your goal isn't to be concise. Your goal is to communicate your messages. Your goal is to be memorable when telling a story.

It's to tell people as much information as they need to really have an investment in the characters the problem, the solution, the conflict, the emotion, and what the message was. You don't have to talk for 10 minutes. You don't even have to talk for three minutes for a story, but you're gonna have to talk longer than 10 seconds so avoid this common blunder of just being way too short and too concise.