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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is that short is good in many cases.

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Speaker 1: Aiming to make things more compact will in fact make

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Speaker 1: them better and make everyone happier too. I spent some

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Speaker 1: early years of my career writing frequently for publications that

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Speaker 1: were known for their brevity. I wrote op eds for

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Speaker 1: USA Today, and I wrote tiny, bite sized features for

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Speaker 1: Reader's Digest, a publication whose founding purpose was to make

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Speaker 1: things shorter. For both publications, I was always trying to

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Speaker 1: figure out how to say things in fewer words. Yes,

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Speaker 1: sometimes some nuance was lost, but other times a concept

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Speaker 1: was honed down to its essence or an argument made stronger.

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Speaker 1: When you think about the shortest way to make your point,

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Speaker 1: you consider every word. Some turn out to be needless,

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Speaker 1: so best to omit them. It's a lesson I've taken

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Speaker 1: with me since one reason this podcast is so short.

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Speaker 1: If I can share a tip in a few minutes,

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Speaker 1: why not do so. It's also a lesson I think

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Speaker 1: is helpful for other situations. For instance, if you are

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Speaker 1: planning a ceremony, how can you accomplish the ceremony's goal

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Speaker 1: without losing people's goodwill. During the pandemic, my church began

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Speaker 1: doing outdoor family services that were over in about twenty

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Speaker 1: five minutes versus an hour for regular church. I have

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Speaker 1: to say I like the concept, and my kids were

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Speaker 1: much better behaved and involved. Graduations likewise can seem interminable.

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Speaker 1: We need to have pity on people sitting out in

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Speaker 1: broiling robes in the hot sun. When I have given

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Speaker 1: commencement speeches, I have made a point of being brief.

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Speaker 1: In general, brief speeches forced the speaker to figure out

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Speaker 1: the most important message, and that is a good thing.

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Speaker 1: Witnessed the popularity of TED talks. They wouldn't be nearly

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Speaker 1: as popular if they were an hour long, but twelve

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Speaker 1: to eighteen minutes. That is an idea worth sharing long

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Speaker 1: time before breakfast listeners know that I am a big

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Speaker 1: fan of shorter meetings. I like to ask people for

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Speaker 1: twenty minutes on the phone. Most calendar programs make it

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Speaker 1: hard to block for anything other than thirty minutes or

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Speaker 1: sixty minutes, So if you ask for twenty in the

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Speaker 1: meeting runs over or probably okay. The space is most

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Speaker 1: likely there, but the shorter time frame forces us to

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Speaker 1: get to the point. People can always use the extra

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Speaker 1: minutes for something else. Now I know that for some

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Speaker 1: things in this world, length is part of the appeal.

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Speaker 1: I am reading War and Peace this year, all pages

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Speaker 1: of it, and that epic scope would be hard to

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Speaker 1: pull off in a shorter work. That said, Tolstoy made

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Speaker 1: his chapters, all three hundred sixty, some of them short.

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Speaker 1: Their short length makes them feel doable and makes this

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Speaker 1: work approachable in a way that eighty page chapters inside

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Speaker 1: a four page book just wouldn't. Also, most of us

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Speaker 1: aren't Tolstoy. If you are writing a white paper, right

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Speaker 1: a draft and then see if you can cut it.

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Speaker 1: Most likely you can, and it will be better as

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Speaker 1: a result. If you are hosting a meeting, see if

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Speaker 1: you can aim for a shorter time frame forty five

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Speaker 1: minutes instead of an hour, twenty minutes instead of thirty.

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Speaker 1: Even social gatherings can be better when brief. I attended

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Speaker 1: a lovely virtual toast for someone recently. The planners knew

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Speaker 1: that the guest of honor was on a tight schedule.

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Speaker 1: We were in and out in forty five minutes. It

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Speaker 1: was great. I'm not sure quite how we will be

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Speaker 1: able to replicate that sort of brevity with in person socializing,

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Speaker 1: but in many cases it would be wise. Kid birthday

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Speaker 1: parties tend to go off the rails after ninety minutes. Honestly,

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Speaker 1: most happy hours due too. So Today, as you are

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Speaker 1: thinking about any upcoming gatherings or any content you might

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Speaker 1: be producing, think about whether you could make them shorter.

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Speaker 1: Consider whether shorter would be better. Maybe not, but often

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Speaker 1: the answer turns out to be yes. In the meantime,

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Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

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Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey everybody, I'd love to

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Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

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Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E the

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Speaker 1: number four, then breakfast p o D. You can also

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Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i

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Speaker 1: heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out

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Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward

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Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of

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Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,

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Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

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Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows,