Can you be Relevant in 7 Seconds?

Riding in the indoor arena is a luxury I’m thankful for every day. There are beautiful trees and a plentiful walnut tree offers a treat for Salvation and the other horses. Of course we also have a resident squirrel population but I digress! This blog post is about the nuances of connection, attention and authentic communication.

My previous horse was to pinch the phrase “only scared of two things. Things that move and things that don’t.” I soon developed a new set of verbal cues with him that served as reassurance and a warning that he might pay attention to me and his surroundings before becoming startled and scaring us both. This time of year “Squirrel” was uttered with alarming frequency. Other horses and riders looked on and decided we were perhaps past help. I learnt a thing or two from riding this horse. Mostly how to keep his focus and de escalate any heightened emotions. 

How does this horse story help my point? If you are new to my blogging style please give me a couple more sentences? 

My 7 second dilemma.. 

I learnt fairly recently that future generations will perhaps only give us seven seconds before tiring of attending to information that might also be available on Google? Does that mean attention spans are changing? Does that mean I have to learn to chunk all my thoughts and create new performance cues to help my athletes or those that work with me? How do I condense my thoughts? Could I turn them into emojis or graphics? Would that really give a language that can communicate insights, emotions, advice, the health and safety briefings? 
Can I compete first person as a Coach with the entertainment of the digital world? How about when I want to coach or present on the digital stage? How can my subject matter hope to stand out and invite a real connection or hope of a conversation? 

Squirrel? 

Attention Span is not likely to be a problem for our audience. It was explained very well to me recently by Mark Schaefer during his Personal Branding Masterclass. ( Check out the course here it’s a not to be missed opportunity to learn from Mark ) 

Riders need insights and solutions to meet the challenges posed when we encounter things that move ( and those that don’t ..) The challenge for Coaches is to be both relevant and interesting. We need to communicate and share knowledge in less than 7 seconds when we have a squirrel situation and when we are discussing the how, what, what now and what next online we have to craft our content in a way that can support and engage our audience. Where we can be interesting I think we might have longer to present our thoughts?

What do you think about online content and how do you like to chunk the information you are bombarded with? Do you think there is a new evolution of coaching practice and business marketing comms taking shape to nurture and support the next generation of equestrians? Let me know!