I spent today sweating… smiling feebly at other people… and making lame jokes and wondering what I’d gotten myself into.
A weeklong sailing course, that’s what. On a boat, the whole seven days. Except today was the first day, so all we did was sit in the harbor and talk theory.
Theory. How to. For an entire day.
That means I shifted around the deck to catch a bit of shade and to minimize the chances of heat stroke…
I nodded while meaningless nautical terms flew in one ear and out the other…
And I stifled a scream of desperation, just as it looked like we were done for the day, when yet another of my fellow students asked yet another question to clear things up and appear smart. And then watched with even more shock and horror as a followup question flew out of my own mouth also.
Tomorrow we’re supposed to go sailing, but I’m not feeling very excited. The theory day killed it for me.
“Why didn’t they take us out for a little tour first?,” I thought to myself. “It’s a lesson for the future. When I create an experience for people, I’ll make sure the first experience an entertaining demonstration.”
Except maybe it doesn’t matter all that much. Because I read in a psychology book that when human beings evaluate an experience, they only look at two points:
The emotional highlight… and the end.
Which means a weeklong cruise gets reduced to that run-in with the topless French twins in that hidden lagoon… and the quality of the lunch on the last day as you’re pulling back into harbor.
But in any case, the point stands:
When you create an experience, whether that’s a sales letter… a newsletter email… or a course… a few points carry an immoderate amount of weight:
1. The end.
2. The emotional highlight.
3. And the beginning. In the special case, that is, that your audience can walk or swim out of the experience you’re crafting.