Seven-Second Stories

Stephen RobinsonSeven-Second StoriesStephen RobinsonSeven-Second StoriesStephen RobinsonSeven-Second Stories

I have often found myself in situations where I am meeting new people. Whether that initial encounter happened at a job interview, cocktail party, conference, or on a plane, I was almost always asked one of several standard questions: “Where are you from?” “Where did you go to school?” “What do you do for a living?” And so on.

After many years of stilted conversations that seemed to move forward only in fits and starts, I was determined to find a way to turn casual conversations into moments where I would be remembered.

The problem with those standard questions is that they typically generate answers that are fundamentally uninformative and require probing to become meaningful.

Q: Where are you from?

A: Brooklyn, NY.

Q: Where did you go to school?

A: Cornell.

Q: What do you do for a living?

A: I am a lawyer.

I wanted to develop answers to those questions (and others) that would:

1. Provide a lot of information about me.
2. Humanize me and make me likable.
3. Make me memorable.
4. Pique the questioner’s interest.
5. Provide something for the questioner to ask me about to continue the conversation.

That is how I came up with the idea of telling “Seven-Second Stories.”  I wanted my responses to be short and crisp and fall quickly from my lips … in just about seven seconds. So, I decided to create and practice these mini stories in answer to those questions, and others.

Here are some of my Seven-Second Stories:

Q: Where are you from? 

A: My two brothers and I were raised by our mother in the Marcy Housing Projects in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, New York.

In that answer I have given you a lot of information about me and provided multiple avenues for follow up questions. You learned that I have two brothers. You learned that we were raised by a single mother. You learned that we were relatively poor (growing up in the housing projects). You learned that I grew up in one of the toughest neighborhoods in New York City.

Q: Where did you go to school?

A: I am a double Cornellian and bleed “Big Red”. I graduated from the Arts College, and the Law School. I met my wife there. I was married on the Cornell campus, and my wife was my law professor.

Again, a lot of information for follow-up questions. I bet I can guess which bit of information piqued your curiosity most!

Q: What do you do for a living?

A: I have had a lot of jobs in and out of the government. My government work included time as an Assistant US Attorney, as a US Attorney, as a senior official at the FBI, and as a federal judge.

Sometimes I do this one backwards: “In my government work I was most recently a federal judge and before that a US Attorney, an FBI official, and an Assistant US Attorney.

This answer, in a few seconds, provides lots of information about my professional career and is both more helpful and interesting than simply admitting that I am a lawyer. After all, not even other lawyers like meeting lawyers.

Spend the time to develop your own Seven-Second Stories to those and other frequently asked questions. Trust me, you have interesting bits of information to drop. It may take time to work out each story and to hone and rehearse your pithy response, but I guarantee that you will walk away from new encounters having shared meaningful information that will make you memorable. (‘Oh yeah, he’s the guy who married his law professor!’)