Presentation-Secrets-Of-Steve-Jobs
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USE “AMAZINGLY ZIPPY” WORDS 119<br />
A Guru Who Keeps It Simple<br />
It was hard to miss financial guru Suze Orman in 2008 and<br />
2009 when the global financial markets were collapsing. In<br />
addition to appearing on her own CNBC show, the bestselling<br />
author was a frequent guest on shows such as “Oprah” and<br />
“Larry King Live.” Banks and financial companies were also<br />
using her in advertisements meant to alleviate their customers’<br />
fears. I interviewed Orman several times and found her<br />
to be surprisingly candid about the secret to her success as a<br />
communicator.<br />
“How do you make complicated financial topics easy to<br />
understand?” I once asked.<br />
“Too many people want to impress others with the information<br />
they have so others think the speaker is intelligent,”<br />
Orman responded. 8<br />
“But Suze,” I said, “If your message is too simple, don’t you<br />
risk not being taken seriously?”<br />
I don’t care what people think about it. All I care about is<br />
that the information I’m imparting empowers the listener<br />
or reader of my material . . . If your intention is to impart a<br />
message that will create change for the person listening,<br />
then if you ask me, it is respectful to that person to make<br />
the message as simple as possible. For example, if I gave<br />
you directions to how to get to my house, you would<br />
want me to give you the simplest directions to get there.<br />
If I made it more complicated, you would not be better<br />
off. You might get aggravated and give up. If it were<br />
simple, chances are you will get in your car and try to<br />
get to my house rather than giving up and saying it’s not<br />
worth it. Others criticize simplicity because they need<br />
to feel that it’s more complicated. If everything were so<br />
simple, they think their jobs could be eliminated. It’s our<br />
fear of extinction, our fear of elimination, our fear of not<br />
being important that leads us to communicate things in<br />
a more complex way than we need to.” 9