Nobody cares that your episode started as a blog post. They care whether the next ten minutes are worth their time. That opening basically announces recycled content.
In this episode, I share the cold open technique that hooks attention immediately. You’ll learn where to find your opening line and why it should never come from the beginning of your script.
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Transcript
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::Today, I'm reading my post on client retention strategies. Don't go. That's how you might lose a listener in five seconds or however long. I wasn't counting how many seconds, but that's how you lose a listener.
::Nobody out there is really going to care that your episode started as a blog post.
::They're going to care whether or not the next however many minutes you spend talking are worth
::their time. And that opening that I just used is going to announce to that listener that they're
::about to hear some recycled content that they could have read online. So you want to use a cold
::open instead. And this is going to be the most surprising or maybe counterintuitive sentence or
::something that sums up what they're about to learn from the middle of the content or that overview
::of all of it. So say that thing first before you do an intro. If you're doing an intro before you
::say who you are before anything else happens on that episode. So instead of that cold open of
::today I'm reading my blog post on client retention, you might want to try something like,
::hey, most consultants lose clients for reasons that have nothing to do with their work.
::So now if I said something like that, I have a greater chance at holding the listener's attention.
::Now they want to know what you mean by that or more details about it.
::And that opening line is going to earn you the next 60 seconds or 60 minutes if it's a long episode.
::So lead with that insight because if you don't get them there, it doesn't even matter how good the rest of your episode is.
::I'm Jen DeHaan. This is the Credibility Minute.
::So find more episodes or you can get in touch with me and subscribe to the podcast at StereoForest.com slash minute.