Say less

Repeating a point doesn't make it more convincing

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to say less. There is almost never a
case where talking more will make your original point more clear.

(00:27):
Say what you are going to say, and then just stop.
Today's tip was inspired by a bit of advice in
Bill McGowan's new book, Speak Memorably. McGowan is a communications
coach and has worked with many people to help them
present better. McGowen is often trying to get people to

(00:48):
edit their remarks. In his book, he mentions that we
might rationally know that a concise talk or answer is best,
But somewhere rummaging around in the backs of our brains,
is this fallacy that the longer I talk, the more
convincing I'm going to be. He writes. Perhaps you have

(01:09):
seen this. You are at a lovely non profit fundraiser
that is outside on a summer night. The president of
the group gets up to welcome people. He says how
excited he is that everyone is there. He thanks everyone
for coming. Then he mentions again how excited he is
that everyone is there, And did he thank everyone for everything? Yet,

(01:32):
what a lovely evening, he is so excited, and so
on it goes. Eventually everyone is desperately hoping to get
back to the food and their conversations. So please don't
do that. If there is any chance you will be
called upon to say a few words, and I do
mean a few words, then think ahead of time about

(01:55):
what you will say. Practice and time yourself, practice again,
and see if you can cut out any of it.
Whatever you are going to say, say it once and
then stop. You are not more convincing the longer you talk. Instead,
whatever good will you began with evaporates and people just

(02:18):
don't want to hear any more. They start hoping you
will stop, which is not really a good relationship to
be in with any sort of listener. This is true
for speaking and meetings as well. If you have a
point to make, make it, then stop repeating the same
point a second time tends not to reinforce it. It

(02:39):
just wastes every one's time. Same if you are asking
a question in a public speaking situation, a question should
be a sentence or two with a question mark at
the end of it. This should not be a speech
in its own right, made because the person put their
hand up before organizing their thoughts. Sometimes people say more

(03:04):
because they are nervous, But if this is any sort
of hostile situation, even better to say less. You don't
want to accidentally say more than you meant to and
incriminate anyone. If you think about it, no one ever says, wow,
I wish those welcoming remarks at dinner went on a

(03:26):
lot longer. So say less. You are more likely to
get your point across and everyone will be happier. In
the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening

(03:51):
to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

(04:14):
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.