Two More Things For Which You Can Use Open Loops

hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17th
and today in this one add a video I want
to continue something that I talked
about recently in one of the other
videos I was talking about how effective
open loops are in storytelling you know
cliffhangers leaving something open to
the imagination because the human brain
just simply craves closure craves the
answer so I was presented on the same
day today with two more things that open
loops are really effective for daño day
and I are teaching this year’s edition
of the ACX masterclass and we’re at that
point in the curriculum where Dan is
showing students how to write scannable
and magnetic and really well-designed
profiles and one of the big mistakes
that he points out that people make is
that they tend to over write because
they want to make sure they include
everything they want they write big long
paragraphs you know if the block the
text block on the profile page on the
website and we’re talking in particular
about sites like a CX or voice 1 2 3 or
any site where you would put in a
profile they’ll say limit 3000
characters which tells some people you
know I got to come up with 3000
characters that’s ok and so they just
sort of like regurgitate like all this
stuff to fill up the space when it’s not
really necessary open loops can really
draw someone in to your profile like you
know I I have a positioning statement
that I use for most of the about screens
the about areas when I do profiles and
some of them don’t have a limit some of
them like yuck I could I could send my
my full resume if I wanted to but I’m
really brief I just say a creepy evil
villain
and sometimes I’ll embellish depending
upon what the site is you know on a C
maybe it’s a love who loves to tell
stories I don’t know but it’s very short
and very sweet and people like they
don’t expect that and they want to think
to themselves what like one of the one
of the examples was I am a bulldozer
operator and a waffle chef you know like
what who does that you know so having an
open loop in a profile can make people
want to know more it can be enticing it
can be mysterious as opposed to a
laundry list of all your accomplishments
which probably goes under your
professional you know your your resume
or your professional summary anyway so
that’s one area where open loops can be
really effective don’t tell everybody
everything just tell them some cool
stuff I mentioned during the class that
we taught this week that in my special
skills I talked about the fact that I am
a Fritz Feld impersonator and if you
don’t know who Fritz felled is you want
to know what that means if you do know
who Fritz Feld is well you’re probably
in your 40s or 50s or older and you want
to see if I can actually impersonate
Fritz Feld so I leave that in my special
things and if somebody brings it up
great and you’d be surprised how often
that happens the second thing that came
up today in terms of how open loops can
be effective I was talking to a dear
sweet friend who’s just started an
awesome podcast and I’ll tell you about
it at some point in the future the story
behind how I know her
I’m I was very good friends and am very
good friends with her husband we worked
together in radio in Cleveland she
started this new podcast and it’s just
great it’s just fantastic it’s an hour
long it’s an hour long and it’s hard for
podcast listeners to hand over that much
of their mind share even if it’s just
every so often because of
because they’ve got other things going
on in their life because they want to
listen to other podcasts so one of the
suggestions that I made to her was
instead of one long hour-long podcast
how about five or six 10 or 12 minute
podcasts with the same person but you
leave an open loop at the end of each
one she was talking with someone in the
Edition in the episode that I listen to
just before I talked to her who had gone
from a job at a small designer in
Cleveland we both lived in Cleveland for
the longest time I grew up there and I
grew up with her husband and worked with
her husband and she jumped from there to
a small design boutique to one of the
biggest employers of designers in
Cleveland or in the world American
Greetings and she was working on some
really cool projects and at some point
during the podcast my friend said this
phrase but it didn’t quite work out the
way you thought it would did it right
there right there stop next episode
because you’re leaving somebody with
something to ponder well oh my god what
happened was a disastrous was it awesome
do you know did she come close to death
did she find a million dollars there’s a
million things that could have happened
right and you know we talked about it I
I don’t know if she’s gonna do it but
there’s that option and by the way when
you have shorter podcast episodes that
happen more often that means you have
more opportunities if your podcast is ad
supported or listener-supported or
donation supported you have more options
and opportunities to sell space or to
ask for support from your listeners so
if you have one big long hour-long
podcast you can maybe squeeze a
commercial and at the beginning maybe
somewhere in the middle maybe at the end
but if you have six episodes and you can
put a spot at the beginning in a spot at
the end well that’s twelve ads or
moments of request for support as
opposed to just three and you’re taking
up less of your listeners mindshare if
their commute is only twenty minutes to
get from where they live to the office
or whatever they still have an extra ten
minutes to listen to some other podcast
you’ve given them a gift so an open
loops is a big part of that you keep
teasing what’s gonna happen in the next
episode when you get to the end of the
episodes of the six or whatever episodes
that you have of that person with that
interview you tease the next person
right so a couple more ways that open
loops can really work for you I’m
wondering if this is helpful to you at
all I know some of the things are
directly applicable I’m gonna I’ve got a
video coming up on some very directly
applicable skills in terms of learning
this is kind of one that you got to kind
of wait for an opportunity for it to
present itself it’s not like you can go
out and go I’m gonna use open loops
today by god that’s what I’m gonna do so
I get that so tell me if these are
getting a little too esoteric for me
tell me if these are like you’re bored
to tears or you’re engaged you know just
let me know what’s going on if you want
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automatically I’m David H Lawrence the
17th I do so appreciate you watching and
I will talk to you tomorrow