<<< [Int: Monk's Diner w/ Jerry and Jean-Paul]

Jerry: (pause) So what happened? The snooze alarm, wasn't it?

Jean-Paul: Man, it wasn't the snooze. Most people think it was the snooze, but no, no snooze.

Jerry: AM/PM.

Jean-Paul: Man, it wasn't the AM/PM. It was the volume.

Jerry: Ahthe volume.

Jean-Paul: Yes, the volume. There was a separate knob for the radio alarm.

Jerry: Ah, separate knob.

Jean-Paul: Yes, separate knob. Why separate knob?! Why separate knob?! (frustrated)

Jerry: Some people like to have the radio alarm a little louder than the radio.

Jean-Paul: Oh, please, man, please!

(From THE HOT TUB - Originally broadcast 10/19/95; written by Gregg Kavet & Andy Robin)

In tip #5, I urged you to purchase a small notebook and collect little moments of nothing - those little phrases/conversations you pick up while eavesdropping on the world that "click" a shutter in your mental camera.

Or, if you can't make it out tonight, simply flip through your television channels until you come across someone showing Seinfeld in syndication.

They got it. Heck, the celebrated it - they flaunted in our faces the fact that their show was about nothing. So are our lives. We connect to one another through a series of little interconnected moments that make us say "Yep! I've been there."

So many businesses want to fill their advertising with grand statements and sweeping stuffs. Problem is we don't live our lives in grand statements.

We relate to the little moments. We live in the interstitials. We connect to nothings. Those, then, should be your focus.

Waiting for my airplane to push back from the terminal, I listened to four late-twenty-something young ladies passionately arguing the merits of treadmills or black pumps or something when one of the young ladies - in a lather - bolstered her argument by prefacing it with:

"Well - Oprah says - "

I am suspect of any argument that begins, "Well - Oprah says " and I suspected more than a few other men were, too.

Thus, one of my clients - a sports bar - began the first ever men's night whose launch ad closed with just that line.

Cherish the little moments of nothing.

Tool One:     Listen.
Tool Two:     Use Better Verbs.
Tool Three:  Study Great Writers.
Tool Four:    Three Shots of Adrenaline
Tool Five:     Embrace Notebook Moments.

PS - When you allow your audience to connect, they fill in the blanks. When they fill in the blanks, they take ownership. My partner, Roy H. Williams, wrote about this with far more clarity in this morning's Monday Morning Memo.

Read About Tim Miles