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Can you please explain that to me as if I were a 7 year old?

Transcript

Hi there. It’s Peter Winick. I’m the Founder and CEO of Thought Leadership Leverage. And in the normal course of my work, working with authors, speakers, academics, consultants, thought leaders, etc., I’m working with a lot of really smart people. I mean like world-class smart people. People that have literally written the book in their field. And that’s awesome. That’s amazing. It’s fantastic.

However, I’ve noticed a pattern that there’s a downside to that. So I’ll call it the sort of coal miners lung of thought leadership. In that, when asked to explain what they do, or their frameworks, or their models, or their methodologies, or the impact of what they do, it’s really complicated. It’s really complex. It’s not that it’s filled with jargon. But they’re coming at it from such a high level of expertise that it loses something in the translation.

So oftentimes, I’ll say to a client early on when we’re talking about their work, and what they do, and how they’ve gone about their research etc. When I’m starting to sort of not be able to track with them a little bit, which is often. I’ll say hold on. Can you explain what it is that you do and explain it to me as if I was a seven-year-old. Literally explain it to me as if I was a seven-year-old. And what I find amazing about that is many of them can. They can do it quickly. They can do it concisely. They can do it really clearly.

But others sort of take a step back and look and I can see them, you know, sort of the wheel spinning. And then, the answer is actually: I’m not sure if I can do it. I’m not sure if I can explain it to you as if you were a seven-year-old. But let me try. And that leads to some really wonderful amazing conversations that help them reframe and articulate what they do and who they do it for in a really tight way.

So anyway, see if you can explain what you do to a seven-year-old today.

Peter Winick has deep expertise in helping those with deep expertise. He is the CEO of Thought Leadership Leverage. Visit Peter on Twitter!

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