Smart coaches often over-explain on camera because they fear seeming unintelligent, burying their message in too many details. The fix: the One Idea Rule. Pick one clear point per answer. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speeches worked because they focused on one device, not ten.
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Let's say you go to your favorite restaurant and today there's a new chef cooking for you and you happen to be his first victim. I mean, customer. Now, you ordered the usual. You ordered some chicken, some kale, and some mashed potatoes. Well, at least that's what I would order. Now, he receives your order from the waiter and he thinks to himself, oh my goodness, I can't mess up this— these people's food because what if I gain the reputation that I don't know how to cook? That I'm not a great chef. Now he has all his seasonings laid out and he's going over in his mind, oh my goodness, what type of seasoning would they like? Maybe they like some seasoned salt. So he starts to add some seasoned salt to that chicken. Then he thinks to himself, oh my goodness, what if they like pepper? Then he starts to add pepper to that chicken. Then he thinks to himself, what if they like regular salt on the chicken? Then he starts to add regular salt. Then he starts to add more and more seasonings. And before he knows it, he over-seasoned your food and he's not serving you chicken. He's serving you high blood pressure. And this is exactly what it looks like when you try to share your thoughts on camera. You over-explain and it's preventing you from being clear on what you want to say. So in this video, I'm going to show you how to stop over-explaining and how to speak more clearly and confidently on camera. Now, over-explaining is not a communication problem. It's a fear response because fear is saying to you, if you don't say everything that you need to say, if you don't say the right answer, people will judge you. People are going to think that you're not adequate enough to speak on the topic that you're talking about. People are, people are going to think that you're not smart enough. People are going to think that you're not qualified. So you try to say the most complete answer to avoid being judged. You use phrases like, and another thing, to overexplain a certain idea because you want to have the most complete right answer. To avoid that, that judgment. Now, I just want to say, if you have this problem, congratulations, you're intelligent. This problem only— overexplaining only happens to smart people because only smart people can see the variables that affect something. Let's say me and you are having a conversation and you own a marketing agency and I ask you the question, why is it that I'm not showing up consistently on Google? Now you're thinking about all the variables because like I said, you're an intelligent person. Maybe you're thinking about, oh, I'm not utilizing Maps correctly. I'm not creating enough content. Or maybe it's that I'm not taking advantage of SEO when I'm putting out the stuff that I am. You could think about all those variables, and because you have a need to be right, to avoid being judged and being perceived as intelligent, you say all of those things rather than just giving me one. And so now you're leaving me more confused. And this happens every time you show up on camera, every time you speak. You're leaving your audience more confused rather than clear because you're saying too much. Saying too much is not the foundation of clear speaking. Saying less and committing to an idea is the foundation of clear speaking. When you say a lot, it's like you're taking someone on a verbal maze. They don't know which direction to go because you've given them too many instructions and now they can't see the end in sight. So if you want to speak more clearly and confidently every time you show up on camera, You have to follow the one idea rule. You say one idea, you commit to it, and you just leave it at that. You don't try to say everything else. So let's go back to the example of you owning a marketing agency. And I ask you the question, why, why am I not consistently showing up on Google? Your response, rather than saying those three on what you could think about, you say one, you commit to one. Oh, you're not creating enough content. So Google don't know who you are. To have you rank and show up consistently. Now what that does is that that gives me a direction and a path to pursue, to focus on, so that I can move forward and create the result that I want for myself. Now I don't feel overwhelmed with you telling me other stuff. I feel like I can genuinely commit to that and be okay with it. I don't feel like I have to do so much stuff that confuses me and takes away my time and energy from the other things that you would have told me to do if you were to say the complete and the right answer and not commit to one idea. I was recently watching a podcast. They were talking about Martin Luther King Jr. and what he used in his speeches to become the greatest and most influential communicator of all time. And I thought to myself multiple answers of what makes his speeches so well and the different literary devices that he uses. And if someone were to ask me that question, because I'm excited about that, that conversation, and I If I studied MLK, my mind would have easily went to the multiple literary devices that I noticed within the speeches. And if I tried to say them all and how he used them effectively, all that would do is confuse the person who I'm having the conversation with. So it would be in my benefit to follow the one idea rule. And I talk about how he used biblical references. That's the one idea I could pursue and follow and not confuse my, uh, the person who I'm having a conversation with. I could talk about the biblical references that he uses to compare what happened back then to what they're experiencing in that moment to get his point across. Trust me, if you follow the one idea, it will truly transform the way that you speak. People will trust you more because they don't feel like you're trying to sound smart to confuse them. They will trust you more because they feel like you're good at committing to something. You're good at committing to one idea rather than trying to commit to multiple ones. Now, practicing this one idea rule is going to be a challenge for you because you're going to be so tempted to go back to saying the right answer to avoid being judged, to avoid being viewed as not intelligent. There's going to be times when you're going to want to mention multiple things. But again, if you have the goal of speaking clearly, And speaking confidently on camera, you have to commit to one idea to avoid confusing people. You have to fight that temptation of mentioning multiple ideas. You don't need to say everything to be right, but if you say one thing, you will be clear. The goal is never to have the most right answer. The goal is to have the most clear answer. So I want to challenge you. Record a simple video of answering a question and commit to one idea. Don't try to say by the way or disclaimers. To avoid being judged. Commit to that one idea and you will be able to speak more clearly and confidently on camera. If you found value in this video, go ahead and subscribe because I help entrepreneurs speak more clearly and confidently on camera. Peace! If you're ready to take control of your life and develop that confidence that you've always been waiting for, then these two videos will help with that.
