Does it sound smart?

A big irony in communication:
the more you try to impress, the less you usually do.

The fancy ads, the larger-than-life promises, the forced storytelling … how often have you found yourself quickly skipping over those, feeling totally unimpressed, indifferent even.

Tangible beats sensational.
Relatable beats fancy.
Every time.

The confusion is perhaps that it’s never about the communicator being smart. You want your audience to feel smart.

Simple, true stories often achieve this better than fancy, larger-than-life stories.

That’s why the “of course effect” I spoke about yesterday is so powerful. The “of course” happens in your audience’s minds—they’ve realized something so true, so obvious, they can’t believe they didn’t see it before.

That doesn’t happen when it sounds fancy. It happens when it’s clear, relatable, and tangible. “Can they see it?” is a much more helpful guiding principle than “Does it sounds smart?”.