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Have you ever wondered why some leaders inspire trust and action while others leave their audience confused or disengaged? In this episode of Speaking with Confidence, I dig into a hard-earned lesson from early in my own teaching journey: the dangers of overcomplicating communication.

Back when I started out as a teacher, my eagerness to impress led me to present high-level material to high school freshmen and sophomores only to realize that complexity wasn’t a sign of intelligence but a barrier to understanding. That moment of frustration, both for me and my students, revealed something powerful: people can’t appreciate your knowledge if you can’t explain it in a way they can grasp.

In this episode, I walk you through transforming the way you communicate, whether you're presenting to a boardroom, pitching a client, or simply leading a team. I draw on insights from leadership expert John Maxwell to introduce the law of simplicity, clarity, brevity, and focus on three mandates that can take your influence to the next level.

Here’s what you’ll hear in today’s episode:

• Why complexity pushes people away and can be a career killer
• How trying to “sound smart” with jargon or convoluted terminology signals insecurity, not expertise
• What actually builds trust and gets you noticed in leadership roles
• The 8th grader test: why your message must be clear enough for a middle schooler to understand
• John Maxwell’s three mandates for powerful communication clarity, brevity, and focus and how to apply them to all your messages
• Simple steps you can use to audit and improve your own communication before any meeting or presentation
• The real mindset shift: moving from ego-driven to audience-first
• How these principles not only change how others perceive you, but directly impact your career progress

By the end of this episode, you’ll be equipped with a practical framework to strip away confusion, communicate with true confidence, and make sure your message always lands. Remember, leadership starts with the ability to make the complex clear. I hope you enjoy the episode and start putting these mandates into practice right away because your voice really does have the power to change you.

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