Why Smart People Suck at Explaining What They Do (And How to Fix It), with Brian Miller

If you're an expert, consultant, or coach trying to explain what you do, you've probably experienced that sinking feeling when someone's eyes glaze over mid-conversation. You know your work matters, but somehow the message isn't landing. This episode tackles one of the most critical skills for building your personal brand: the ability to communicate your expertise in a way that actually connects.

Brian Miller, founder of a message design firm, joins me to break down how smart people can explain their big ideas to the rest of us. We explore why traditional presentation skills training often fails, how to design speeches that do the heavy lifting for you, and why your next keynote shouldn't try to teach everything you know.

Three Key Areas We Discussed:

🎯 The Audience-First Principle - Brian introduces the AFA (Audience First, Always) framework and explains why most experts lose their audience in the first three lines. We dig into the four ways to build a compelling premise: wants, problems, beliefs, and fears.

🎤 The One Page Keynote Method - Forget charisma training and presentation skills workshops. Brian reveals why great speeches matter more than great speakers, and how his framework treats keynotes as a sequence of questions the audience is already asking.

📝 Structure vs. Improvisation - We tackle the controversial question of how much you should script your talks. Brian's take? You need a plan, and "being authentic" isn't an excuse for winging it.

Three Actions You Can Take:

✅ Create Your Filter Framework - Before any communication (keynote, email, networking conversation), write one sentence: "For [audience] to achieve [impact] via [action]." This becomes your filter for what belongs in your message and what doesn't.

🤔 Practice Curiosity Over Interest - When someone talks about something you don't care about, ask yourself: "Why do they care about this?" This shift creates genuine connection and opens doors to unexpected relationships.

💬 Embrace Radical Responsibility - Adopt Brian's mantra: "Everything can be said clearly." When people don't understand you, it's not because they're not smart enough. It's because you haven't found the right way to explain it yet.

https://keynotedesignbook.scoreapp.com/

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