Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to say less. There is almost never a
Speaker 1: case where talking more will make your original point more clear.
Speaker 1: Say what you are going to say, and then just stop.
Speaker 1: Today's tip was inspired by a bit of advice in
Speaker 1: Bill McGowan's new book, Speak Memorably. McGowan is a communications
Speaker 1: coach and has worked with many people to help them
Speaker 1: present better. McGowen is often trying to get people to
Speaker 1: edit their remarks. In his book, he mentions that we
Speaker 1: might rationally know that a concise talk or answer is best,
Speaker 1: But somewhere rummaging around in the backs of our brains,
Speaker 1: is this fallacy that the longer I talk, the more
Speaker 1: convincing I'm going to be. He writes. Perhaps you have
Speaker 1: seen this. You are at a lovely non profit fundraiser
Speaker 1: that is outside on a summer night. The president of
Speaker 1: the group gets up to welcome people. He says how
Speaker 1: excited he is that everyone is there. He thanks everyone
Speaker 1: for coming. Then he mentions again how excited he is
Speaker 1: that everyone is there, And did he thank everyone for everything? Yet,
Speaker 1: what a lovely evening, he is so excited, and so
Speaker 1: on it goes. Eventually everyone is desperately hoping to get
Speaker 1: back to the food and their conversations. So please don't
Speaker 1: do that. If there is any chance you will be
Speaker 1: called upon to say a few words, and I do
Speaker 1: mean a few words, then think ahead of time about
Speaker 1: what you will say. Practice and time yourself, practice again,
Speaker 1: and see if you can cut out any of it.
Speaker 1: Whatever you are going to say, say it once and
Speaker 1: then stop. You are not more convincing the longer you talk. Instead,
Speaker 1: whatever good will you began with evaporates and people just
Speaker 1: don't want to hear any more. They start hoping you
Speaker 1: will stop, which is not really a good relationship to
Speaker 1: be in with any sort of listener. This is true
Speaker 1: for speaking and meetings as well. If you have a
Speaker 1: point to make, make it, then stop repeating the same
Speaker 1: point a second time tends not to reinforce it. It
Speaker 1: just wastes every one's time. Same if you are asking
Speaker 1: a question in a public speaking situation, a question should
Speaker 1: be a sentence or two with a question mark at
Speaker 1: the end of it. This should not be a speech
Speaker 1: in its own right, made because the person put their
Speaker 1: hand up before organizing their thoughts. Sometimes people say more
Speaker 1: because they are nervous, But if this is any sort
Speaker 1: of hostile situation, even better to say less. You don't
Speaker 1: want to accidentally say more than you meant to and
Speaker 1: incriminate anyone. If you think about it, no one ever says, wow,
Speaker 1: I wish those welcoming remarks at dinner went on a
Speaker 1: lot longer. So say less. You are more likely to
Speaker 1: get your point across and everyone will be happier. In
Speaker 1: the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.