Can being too ‘Off-the-Cuff’ Online Actually Cost you Clients?

There’s something sacred about being in the same room with someone.

The warmth of breath, the pauses, the way people lean in. In that space, silence means reflection.

But online, silence means you lost them.

That’s the difference practitioners face today: social media isn’t a room. It’s a scroll.

When you speak face to face, someone has to physically invest a calories to move their body and leave you.

They’d have to stand, gather their things, and walk away (and deal with the social consequences of getting up in the middle of someone talking). There’s a LOT of effort in that.

So, they do something else instead. They give you the benefit of a few extra minutes to find your rhythm, to clarify your point, to reconnect.

But online?

Leaving you takes a thumb twitch.

It’s effortless. It’s unconscious. And it’s instant.

That’s doesn’t have to be discouraging. It can be an exciting revelation now that we know the terrain we’re playing on.

Hoping “your people” will behave different.

A client once said to me, “I don’t need to learn how to speak online. My people will be drawn to my energy”.

It’s such a beautiful idea. That someone just sees your face stops their scroll.

(BTW, If your face is beautiful enough to stop people scrolling, you should ABSOLUTLY use it.)

When practitioners post off-the-cuff videos, they often hope authenticity will carry them. And it can… if the structure honors the viewer’s attention.

Every scroll is a split-second decision to the question: “Did this video earn the next seconds of my attention?”

Scripted content isn’t about faking your voice.

It’s about honoring the attention of someone who doesn’t owe you any yet. They don’t know if they’re you’re people yet, and you want to give them every opportunity to hear your heart and see if they could be one.

A script is a little like choreography for your message.

You’re not pretending to be someone else, you’re prioritizing points in order to invite the viewer to continue watching.

You’re designing a rhythm that lets your authenticity shine before the algorithm sweeps it away.

The Investment of Motion

If a client is sitting in your office, you notice their body soften, eyes settle, breath slow. You can feel when they’re with you, and if they’re pulling away.

If you lose them, you can adjust. You can bring them back.

Online, that’s all invisible. You don’t see them start to drift; and they scroll.

In the room, you lose a minute. But online, you lose the whole encounter.

. . . and the worst part? If you lose enough people in those first seconds, the platforms just stop showing your video to anyone. Leaving “your people” on other creator’s content who took the time to script and honor their attention span (or funny cat videos. Both probably.)

That’s why scripting matters.

A good script respects the viewer’s invisible threshold. It anticipates the scroll and keeps them leaning forward instead of slipping away.

The Patience of Strangers

Someone who knows you will forgive a meandering story.

They already trust the intention behind your words. They’ll wait for the meaning to land because they know your heart.

But strangers have no such history.

They judge the delivery before they feel the depth.

And that’s not being cynical, it’s just a survival adaptation. They (like you) are flooded with content. Protecting their attention is how they stay sane.

A script bridges that gap. It helps the stranger feel what your longtime clients already know: that you care, that you’re thoughtful, that what you offer is worth listening to.

Not Phony - Precise

Let’s address the fear directly. Scripted does not mean stiff. It means intentional.

Phony happens when you perform a character. Precision happens when you honor your message with structure.

Writing a script isn’t about manufacturing emotion. It’s about capturing it clearly enough that it survives translation through a screen.

You can still breathe, still laugh, still pause. But those beats are deliberate.

From Presence to Precision

So how do you keep the heart of your work and still hold attention in the world of the doom scroll?

You don’t have to fake it—you just need a frame.

The S3 Method (I know, horrible name, but what are you gonna do, it’s free) was built for practitioners who want to sound real while staying ready. It walks you through exactly how to script without losing your humanity.

Download it now for free. Your voice deserves to be heard—clearly, confidently, and completely.